Aussies have always done the jazzy/funky/hiphoppy stuff really well, with bands like Skunkhour kicking it off in the 90s, and Good Buddha continue this excellence over a decade later. Having already established that they can produce excellent music and rock a live show, their latest album Hit The Sky Running does nothing more than cement this fact, providing upbeat and funky beats with a great party sound.

Kicking off with Do Right, sampling the blues hit “Why Don’t You Do Right” by Peggy Lee, it eases into what one expects from a typical aussie hiphop/funk album. There’s the token ‘state of the world’ address in Killing Floor, the expected guest MC track Burnin’ with Ozi Batla, complete with samples of old Australian newsreel footage, the jump up party anthem Bouncin’, and the live gig blaster of Soul People. There’s even a refrain of the title track.

Thankfully there’s no sped up vocals, and there are a couple of attempts to break the mold. Smoky Haze is a soul infused number featuring a guest vocalist who despite my best efforts I couldn’t discover her name, and Future Roots, which is an odd little world music beat and chant, which really doesn’t fit in with the rest of the album and is kind of boring.

I know not every album has to be groundbreaking, but overall I found the album a little predictable, as the album doesn’t really stray from the aussie hip hop formula I’ve grown accustomed to. This is not to say the album is average in the slightest – every tune is really fantastic and very well produced, and evokes feelings of happiness and grooviness throughout. It’s just that it lacks that really special something to push it above the excellent standard of aussie hip hop and funk. Having said that, I know I’ll still be listening to it for a while yet.