After seeing the Black Seeds at Bournemouth Pier last year (see HERE) and the Astoria, there’s one more gig of their latest UK tour (at Southampton’s Soul Celler tonight) but there’s still a couple of weeks to go for the rest of Europe.

I must admit that although the central London gig sceen would be lost without it, the Astoria isn’t my favourite venue. And with hardcore emo band Enter Shirkari at the Astoria 2, there’s were lots of emo kids in the area mingling with wandering New Zealanders looking to see the Black Seeds at the main venue. As an aside, I was also the Astoria last year when Enter Shikari were the first unsigned band to headline the venue since The Darkness did it in 2003; that was particular mad!

Getting back to tonight’s headliners, Barnaby’s happy with the tour so far and everything is going well, the night before they just played The Thekla in Bristol; and there was good reports of The Thekla from another Kiwi later on as he’d seen A. Skillz their recently (by coincidence, the review of his new EP ‘Happiness’ coming HERE soon).

Barnaby has been with the band since he was 19 (that was 10 years ago) and whilst it took a couple of years to get their first album released Keep On Pushing, this years’ Solid Ground is their forth (and best!).

I suggested it was different to the previous years’ Into The Dojo, “Yeah, we we’re going for a more of a cross-over feel, but not too much. You could say ‘Send A Message’ is catchy but it’s still a Black Seeds album; It’s like ‘Love Is A Radiation’ is a good choice for the Best Seven Selections 3 compilation”.

The last time we had a chat (see HERE, we spoke about influences and I asked him what he thought of Sonar Kollektiv’s Stee Downes (who is supporting NZ’s reggae rockers Fat Freddy’s Drop on their tour when they hit Dublin on 16th November). “I’ve not heard his album (All In A Day), I suppose I’m a little out of touch being on tour so much”. Well I think we can forgive him that one, but they do need a copy for the tour bus; the Black Seeds next single includes an acoustic version of ‘Send A Message’ which is similar in feel to Stee’s ‘Put A Little Love In My Soul’ and ‘Asunder’.

I felt a bit bad banging on about Stee Downs and favourite remixers (at least we agreed that the Yes King remix of Recloose’s ‘Deeper Waters’ featuring FFD’s Joe Dukie on Best Seven Selections 3 was a bit special) but Barnaby said that it’s their other guitarist (and producer), Mike Fabulous that should take the credit for the dub mix of ‘Make A Move’ that ends Solid Ground.

The last single was ‘Slingshot’ but the current one is even better; ‘Take Your Chances’ comes in two versions, the aforementioned acoustic ‘Send A Message’ and the instrumental of ‘Love Is A Radiation. There’s a really live feel to ‘Take Your Chances’ with the band as strong as ever.

Barnaby did say that he is looking forward to getting home for summer (and the a gig at Pyramid Rock Festival in Victoria on New Years Day) but before then, the band have a fair bit of Europe to see. Absolutely recommended for a great night out of the finest pacific sounds of dub, funk, Afrobeat and soul.

5th November - The Black Seeds in Session: Channel M 00.30 & 22.30 (Sky 203) Gerry McLaughlin hosts an exclusive live session in front of a small invited audience. www.channelm.co.uk

Forthcoming Tour dates
08 Nov 2008 Cabaret Sauvage, Paris, France Paris, Ile-de-France
09 Nov 2008 Melkweg, Amsterdam Amsterdam, Noord-Holland
11 Nov 2008 013 Tilburg, Noord-Brabant
14 Nov 2008 Emb, Sannois Sannois, Ile-de-France
15 Nov 2008 Rack’am, Brétigny-sur-Orge, France Brétigny-sur-Orge, Ile-de-France
17 Nov 2008 Gleis 22, Munster, Germany Munster, Nordrhein-Westfalen
18 Nov 2008 Knust, Hamburg, Germany Hamburg
19 Nov 2008 The Maria, Berlin, Germany Berlin, Berlin
20 Nov 2008 Die Registratur, Munich, Germany Munich, Bayern
21 Nov 2008 Mariaberg, Rorschach, Switzerland Rorschach, St-Gall
22 Nov 2008 Zwölfzehn, Stuttgart, Germany Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg
23 Nov 2008 Underground, Cologne, Germany Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen

Links
www.theblackseeds.com
www.myspace.com/theblackseeds
www.sonarkollektiv.com
www.myspace.com/jabinward
www.bestseven.de
www.theklabristol.co.uk
www.myspace.com/thetheklasocial
www.soul-cellar.com
www.myspace.com/entershikari