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Wellington, New Zealand's The Black Seeds play a polished modern day equivalent to Britain's Two-Tone acts. Their Caucasian vanilla flavors the dark strains of soul and reggae, crushing echo-laden drums pushing you onto the dance floor where bass cradles your hips and the melodica gives you a swing-time twirl. Parts suggest an informal jam between members of Black Uhuru, The Specials, and Augustus Pablo. They share a similar reflective sheen to current reggae darlings Midnite, smoked positivity swaying to lightly brushed brass. A few tracks like "You Wait" dig up UB40's oh-so-honky pop take on reggae but with compelling dubby tail sections; the upside of their more mainstream leanings might be that an O.A.R. fan looking for stronger roots music might stumble across this and leave that mediocre Revolution behind. Better is when they set the controls for the heart of the sunsplash, water rainbows playing against an open sky, a loose spontaneous energy crackling the air. As an eight-piece band they have a lot of possibilities and discrete elements are drawn out on the remix disc full of Mad Professor-esque charms. Especially choice amongst the reworkings are "Black Swandri (100 Plastic Knives vs. The Video Kid remix)," which marries dancehall to Tommy McCook horn-in-ness; and strangely enough the Twinset instrumental remake of "You Wait," which simmers in aromatically funky flute.
The two-disc studio set is the first time The Black Seeds have been available in the U.S. and Japan. It also marks the beginning of a positive turn for KUFALA Recordings, a label that began as live show purveyor and is becoming a viable alternate for any kind of release where artists maintain greater control of their work and can provide their fans with new music faster and at a better price than bigger labels. In addition to these Black Seeds albums, Kufala will be re-releasing the original quartet of long-unavailable Critters Buggin studio albums later this year. Until then we have this fine summery pair to distract us as we jump through sprinklers and drink homebrew from jelly jars.
Dennis Cook
JamBase | California
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