- what / Group
- likes / Reggae, Dub
"With an easy-skanking party sound, The Black Seeds are a warm reminder of the glories of Herbs and the best of UB40, brought up to date in the shadow of Salmonella Dub and iced with their own messages of hope, hot nights and heaven-sent riddums." - Real Groove
2001 was a landmark year for Wellington's premiere reggae/dub band The Black Seeds. With the release of their highly anticipated and well received debut album Keep On Pushing and a year of extensive and enormously successful New Zealand touring behind them, The Black Seeds have received nationwide recognition as one of the country's most exciting new bands.
Formed in 1998, The Black Seeds quickly developed a reputation as the capital's ultimate good groove band, setting local joints jumping with their irie grooves and smooth skanking moves. A seven (or sometimes more) piece group, The Black Seeds produce a uniquely Pacifican blend of soul, funk, reggae and dub sounds that have set dancefloors alight and crowds a-skanking all over Aotearoa, and cemented the band's position as one of the country's leading live outfits.
In June 2001 The Black Seeds released their long awaited debut album Keep On Pushing on Wellington-based independent record label LOOP Recordings Aot(ear)oa. Acclaimed in all quarters, The Black Seeds' album has been the subject of rave reviews and extensive airplay. Songs like "Keep On Pushing", "Hey Son" and "Coming Back Home" have received massive b.net radio support and reached the top spots of several stations' listener-voted charts, as well as receiving regular ongoing airplay on National Radio, Channel Z and other commercial networks. To cap off an already excellent year, Keep On Pushing was listed in Rip It Up magazine's Top 50 albums of 2001.
The release of Keep On Pushing has been supported by an exhaustive touring schedule which has seen The Black Seeds' popularity grow exponentially over recent months. An album release tour packed houses in the main centres and extended to towns including Hamilton, Raglan, Mt Maunganui, Napier, Ohakune, Wanganui and Queenstown. More recent gigs have included a Wellington support for touring international dub artist The Mad Professor and an extensive summer tour including high profile slots at Alpine Unity, The Gathering, the Sound Splash reggae festival in Raglan, bFM's Summer Series, Rippon 2002, Wellington's Cuba Street Carnival and an Orientation tour alongside leading likeminded locals Salmonella Dub.
Two self-funded music videos, for "Keep On Pushing" and "Dance Dance", were been similarly well received and supported. The clip for the album's title track was winner of both The Knack Award at the 2001 Flying Fish New Zealand Music Video Awards and the ultimate prize at Radio Active's Handle The Jandal music video competition, and has been a regular fixture on New Zealand music TV programmes ever since. The Black Seeds' new video for "Hey Son", the third video clip from their album, was made with financial support from NZ On Air, allowing "Keep On Pushing" video director James Barr the luxury this time around of blowing a decent sized budget on all-out action sequences and special effects. The Black Seeds recently received a second NZ On Air video grant, and will soon begin production of a fourth video, for "Coming Back Home".
While The Black Seeds themselves have been busy criss-crossing the country on the live circuit, the master tapes for Keep On Pushing have been skilfully reworked and reshaped by some of the country's top producers for a forthcoming Black Seeds remix album entitled Pushed, due for release in July. The first offering from this release - Involve Records artist Jet Jaguar's rough and rugged rudeboy remix of Coming Back Home - topped Aotearoa's alternative radio chart early this year after its initial release on the Gathering 2002 CD, and will be joined on Pushed by remixes from fellow LOOP Recordings artist Rhian Sheehan, hometown heroes Mu (Roots Foundation, Fat Freddy's Drop), 50Hz and DJ Vee, Fabel Music main man Pylonz, son.sine (Nurture Recordings) and others.
With LOOP Recordings Aot(ear)oa's presence at the Midem music conference in France earlier this year having lead to distribution deals for the label in Australia and the UK, The Black Seeds' album Keep On Pushing, remix album Pushed and a 12" EP featuring tracks from both releases will all receive international releases in 2002. With another extremely busy year already on the cards, The Black Seeds plan to tour Australia for the first time towards year's end and have recently re-entered the studio to begin work on their second album.
"Let's rewind a little. It's only been a year and a half since The Black Seeds' first single, "Keep On Pushing", was released on the Radio Active compilation CD. Since then, their following has risen to a level where you can guarantee there will be standing room only at their gigs. Nowadays, people will be crammed shoulder to shoulder in the audience, yet still dancing like no one is watching." - Salient
