Chet Faker & The Royal Swazi Spa – Fear Like You
A few months ago, ‘The Key of Sea Vol. 2′ compilation was released, featuring contributions from ‘once asylum seekers’ teaming up with Australian alt-music cool kids such as Chet Faker and Sounddoc favourites Jinja Safari. This album was intended to raise awareness and money for the important work done by various Australian Refugee organisations. Great cause, people.
This might be the only thing Chet Faker has done in the last year that hasn’t completely exploded all over the internet, and I think I know at least 2 reasons why: yes people, today we’re talking about the 2 biggest dirty words in Australian pop culture right now: jazz and refugees. Jazz, once the ultimate musical expression of rebellion and life has now been relegated to the status of ‘novelty genre’, technical but not ‘hip’ (unless sampled). Forget the fact that all the most important western music in the last 50 years has its roots in jazz, music culture’s inner teenager has become ashamed of its embarrassing dad and that is just where we are. Oh well. 
And refugees, those people living off your hard earned taxes (oh wait you’re a uni student paying next to nothing in tax) but with nothing really to contribute to society (unlike you, allegedly). Well guess what people! Chet Faker disagrees, and when a bearded man believes something, you can never rule out the possibility that one day that belief could become a Holy Book, and even further down the track, a Channel 9 TV show.
A double bass line opens the piece, brooding and minor. Cymbals are introduced, not the bright shiny kind but the dark, jazz kind. The keys join the rhythm section in this moody Bflat jam, laying the foundation for Chet Faker’s vocals. The instruments are played by musicians from ‘The Royal Swazi Spa’, a South African ensemble. The vibe is kind of reminiscent of Wayne Shorter’s ‘Footprints’ (circa 1966) so I could definitely see why someone might feel it doesn’t sound ‘current’, however I think that if you put a fat 808 drum track over the top of this and added some sidechain-compressed synth, there is a 90% chance that hipsters in bars could be ambiguously moving their upper bodies to this tune in no time.
Now, to Chet’s vocals: the guy is the real deal. One thing about Chet Faker is that he doesn’t really show off range-wise, he just sings the damn song and sings it well. Chet Faker’s voice is like when you have a beautiful Vintage Telecaster plugged into a Blues Junior amplifier: you can turn off all the damn effects pedals now and just listen to the damn instrument. Got it?
Ok, have a listen, and try not to let the nylon string guitar solo after the first chorus put you off, maybe we’ll all learn something. Enjoy!
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Good article Tim. Though the opening does indeed remind me of Footprints, (or perhaps So What, considering it’s lack of harmonic variety) I feel that the ensemble playing on this track is not good. I don’t know who the drummer and bass player are, and I’m hesitant to criticise them too quickly, but the drums are completely reactive, relying on the bass to create the rhythmic drive and interest, while that bass plays the same damn ostinato near on 5 minutes (even when the chords change in the chorus).
The elements that makes jazz the great genre that it is is lost in this track. This is jazz at it’s most superficial. Double bass, splashy cymbals and one chord modal jam? Check, check, check.
There are some redeeming features to this track. Chet’s vocals as you mentioned, plus the piano solo is quite good. I can definitely hear Shorter’s Witch Hunt at the beginning of their solo. Likewise the saxophone solo. But if they are indeed aiming to educate the their audience and bring jazz to the masses I suggest they go back to school first.
Great points all, Brendan. I think the primary purpose of the recording may have been more to do with the promoted cause rather than a crusade to bring jazz back to the masses. I was interested by your point about this being jazz at its most superficial, and agree that jazz like this is unlikely to re-enter the main-stream consciousness, that seems to be a struggle even for the Robert Glaspers of the world.
Thanks for the link Tim. In case you/Brendan were interested, the bassline is sampled from Abdullah Ibrahim’s track Ishmael from ’76.