The Black Seeds - Intothe Dojo

Mon 8th Jan, 2007 in Music Reviews

New Zealand 8-piece The Black Seeds have made quite an impression in their native homeland and here also, with a short run of dates in Australia a couple of months ago and an appearance recently at The Falls Festival in Lorne and Marion Bay.

Their mix of dub, chill-out funk and reggae is a welcome change for those of you fed up with rock, emo and other. For an eight piece band touring, it must be tough on the pocket; splitting dividends between eight musicians, lugging heaps of instruments around – which is why I reckon these guys plainly love what they are doing and that vibe is transferred to this here disc.

Reminiscent of bands such as The Cruel Sea, D.I.G. and even early Black Sorrows the opening tracks are pretty chilled out but by no means boring, utilising a mix of keys, horns, bass, drums and percussion which soothe the soul and hail the start of the cricket season. Track highlights include The Answer, Cool Me Down and Got A Girl. One By One upstarts the tempo midway through and Give and Take brings forth the funk in a stoned-but-trying-to-dance kinda way.

Into the Dojo is essentially an inspiring journey of an album, moving seamlessly from one track to another and a great third delivery at that. It is also proof of the quality of music coming out of New Zealand whose isolation makes for some classic catches.