Where the hell did this come from? Or perhaps the more appropriate question is when?

You probably haven’t heard it, but Troy Kingi’s Shake That Skinny Ass All The Way to Zygertron is a retro-futurist funk fest. That's probably the best way to describe it. Or a Funky Space Opera. If I didn’t know this was the cool stoner dad from Hunt for the Wilderpeople, I’d swear this was another one of those seventies remasters pulled from the dusty vaults for a fleeting tour of this modern world.

On the outside, it looks like the cover of a pulpy Science Fiction novel, of which there are thousands rotting in used book stores around the world. On the inside, it sounds like the soundtrack to a low budget Star Wars knock-off porno from the seventies. It really deserves its own full length animated film, with the music as narration – like that Interstella 5555 film by Daft Punk.

You wouldn’t know it from his appearance in the aforementioned Taika Waititi film, but Kingi has a voice that could give Sam Smith’s falsetto a run for its money – which is saying something because Smith’s voice rakes in the dollar bills.

It’s a clever album, a unique concept, with some pretty absurdist lyrics, but also some lines that spoke true and hit home. “My mother bought me a time machine, so I can never be late again…” still rings in my head. That and the refrain for Grandma’s Rocket Poem.

I can’t say I’ve ever been into Funk, but then I can’t say I’ve ever tried. I’m glad this album was my introduction and I’m really glad this album came to fruition. It’s obvious a lot of work, love and thought went into it. Charles Baudelaire wrote of a specific intoxicant that “it gives the power of imagination and takes away the ability to profit by it.” So quickly the thoughts from the sea of dreams, like “I should really replace that window” or “I’m going to stop eating Quarter Packs and go for a run” or “I’m going to make a mean as Science Fiction Funk Opera” disappear into the too hard basket.

Why mention this? Because with an album and concept this unique, it had to be conceived under the influence. Yet, it’s not one of those albums that you have to be under the influence to enjoy.

Sadly, advertising only reaches so far, and there are some people you can’t reach, but there are more pockets of the world that need to hear this album. For what seems like a niche album, there is a lot of mainstream appeal – if only we could reach the common people, the ones who only listen to what their told and are going to miss out on this sojourn past the stratosphere.

You probably haven’t heard it… But I think you really should.

_{Review written by Peter-James Dries}

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