The Black Seeds are a

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

inspired musical group from

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

.Campbell-Livingston, Cecelia (2013)
The Black Seeds, rooted in reggae
, '' Jamaica Observer'', 27 November 2013. Retrieved 1 December 2013 Their rocksteady song "One By One" became an international hit when it was played in top ranked TV series ''Breaking Bad''. Their music is a mixture of

big beat Big beat is an electronic music genre that usually uses heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns – common to acid house/techno. The term has been used by the British music industry to describe music by artists such as th ...

funk, dub, afro music, pop, rock,

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest atte ...

, and

roots reggae Roots reggae is a subgenre of reggae that deals with the everyday lives and aspirations of Africans and those in the African Diaspora, including the spiritual side of Rastafari, black liberation, revolution and the honoring of God, called Jah ...

ragga Raggamuffin music, usually abbreviated as ragga, is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music. Similar to hip hop, sampling often serves a prominent role in raggamuffin music. Wayne Smi ...

. Formed in 1998, The Black Seeds perform with eight members, with instruments including

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

, bass, drums,

bongos Bongos ( es, bongó) are an Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed hand drums of different sizes. They are struck with both hands, most commonly in an eight-stroke pattern called ''martillo'' (hammer). The ...

, keyboard and wood block. Black Seeds first album, ''Keep on Pushing'', was released 2001 following a number of live performances. Already very successful in New Zealand and popular in Australia, Europe and North & South America, their third album ''Into the Dojo'' (2007) introduced Black Seeds internationally. They have released five albums, a live album, and two remix albums. They have two double-platinum selling albums in New Zealand, and successful European album releases through the German-based ''Sonar Kollektiv'' label. In 2011 Black Seeds was described by ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' as "The Best Reggae band in the world right now". Lead singer Barnaby Weir, the son of veteran radio broadcaster Dick Weir, is also associated with the side-projects Fly My Pretties and ''Flash Harry''. Former band member

Bret McKenzie Bret Peter Tarrant McKenzie (born 29 June 1976) is a New Zealand musician, comedian, music supervisor, and actor. He is best known as one half of musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords along with Jemaine Clement. In the 2000s, the duo's c ...

is also a member of international award-winning comedy duo

Flight of the Conchords Flight of the Conchords is a New Zealand musical comedy duo formed in Wellington in 1998. The band consists of multi-instrumentalists Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Beginning as a popular live comedy act in the early 2000s, the duo's come ...

, as well as playing the role of Figwit the elf in Peter Jackson's ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's b ...

''. The band released their 6th studio album "Fabric" in early September 2017. Their song "One by One" was used in AMC's '' Breaking Bad'' Season 2 Episode, " 4 Days Out" and also appears on the series' official soundtrack.

Discography

* ''Keep On Pushing LP'' (2001) * '' On the Sun'' (2004) * ''Into the Dojo'' (2006) * '' Solid Ground'' (2008) * ''The Black Seeds Live – Vol 1'' (2009) * ''Specials: remixes and versions off Solid Ground'' (2010) * '' Dust And Dirt'' (2012) * ''Fabric'' (2017) * ''Love & Fire (2022)''

References

External links

*
The Black Seeds – Amplifier.co.nz

Black Seeds Bio – Muzic.net.nz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Seeds, The New Zealand reggae musical groups Sonar Kollektiv artists Easy Star Records artists Pacific reggae