X Factory: The X-Factory - The Black Seeds

The Wellington Sound. Don't fight it cos it's here now. While no bands are the same, there seems to a collective or a community of like-minded souls in the windy city that is bringing their noise to the nation.

The labelling in the 1980s of a Dunedin Sound led to many a misinterpretation that amounted to "all Dunedin bands sound the same", which was, and is completely untrue. The same applies for Wellington and, in this case, The Black Seeds. theblackseeds.com describes their sound as originally "a unique blend of funk, reggae, soul and dub". Since the release of the album 'On the Sun' in February 2004 it has become the "reggae/dub sound made popular on their debut album but introduces heavy funk/soul". Things have indeed become heavier, but I sense there's more to it than that - I'm hearing jazz.

Here in New Zealand we love mixing up styles to create new hybrids. I imagine it must be part of our collective pioneering spirit. Dub and reggae have become signature sounds of New Zealand music, largely because both styles (one originally being a mixing application of the other) are able to support a whole range of other styles. That is to say that reggae and dub are like Aunty and Uncle when the cousins come to stay. Rock, funk, soul, gospel, r'n'b, metal, punk, electro, folk, jazz and so much more can easily fit in a context of these host styles. It does not work the other way round - folk music is not an ideal host for metal or punk!

In the past 10 years we have seen hip hop act as the host for countless other styles - artists down the years have been sampled and mashed in hip hop tracks. For this reason hip hop is not actually a singular style of music - it is more a community of many 'musics'. The crossover from New Zealand hip hop styles into New Zealand reggae and dub is an exceptionally smooth one, with some artists sitting comfortably in both camps - Che Fu instantly springs to mind.

The Black Seeds are part of the new sound. While 'On the Sun' was released over a year ago it has remained in the charts, largely due to the gigging and touring schedule of the band. A mix of conventional rhythm section instrumentation with horns, vintage keyboards and contemporary/retro electro elements is the foundation of their sound. Vocals have that subtle laid-back-but-edgy quality we know so well, often sitting just behind the beat, as taught to us by Bob Marley.

Harmonically, this music is desperately simple and this is for a very good reason - it creates space for dubbing out, and for the washes of instrumental melodies that dominate the soundscapes. Many of the songs offer only a few chords, and with lengthy repetition of a single chord under a groove. This is like the one-chord jams of James Brown, the one-chord blues and the one-chord jams of roots reggae. The tension and release is powerful in this music. We are sometimes made to wait for the next chord for a long time.

In terms of melody, the instruments are of equal importance to the vocal. The vocal phrases are in many cases short and cover a small range of notes and, in keeping with the arrangement style, are reiterated many times. However, the vocal is often subservient to instruments. This is an approach to songwriting and arrangement that prioritises song components in a totally different way to traditional reggae, for example, in which the vocal melody is most important.

The Black Seeds offer a mix of song structures. The conventional approach to the verse/chorus relationship is unhooked in many songs, providing a platform for extended instrumental sections and improvisation. This is not dissimilar to the way in which jazz musicians of the late 1950s started to stretch out the structure of the Tin Pan Alley show tunes they borrowed, in which the original conventional structure of the song became less important as the musicians stretched out on a groove. I think of the Black Seeds' sound (and the Wellington Sound) as a modern jazz - the spirit of improvisation and instinctive musical communication that jazz includes is definitely at home here. Jazz has served as a host to many styles over the decades; in fact all popular musics have turned up in contemporary jazz. You only have to look at the catalogue of legend Miles Davis to see an ongoing reflection of the most current sounds around him in pop music (check out Bitches Brew and On the Corner). I think if Miles were alive today, he'd be getting down with the dub sounds from Welly. 

Stephen Small is the co-ordinator of Popular Music Studies at the University of Auckland. He can be contacted at s.small@auckland.ac.nz