with two gold-selling albums in new zealand and several years of successful touring, wellington-based the black seeds have received nationwide recognition as one of the country's best bands. an 8-piece live act, they produce a unique blend of funk, reggae, soul and dub that has set dancefloors alight throughout australasia and they regularly sell out shows and tours.
in june 2001 the black seeds released their debut album keep on pushing to rave reviews. it was voted by local publication rip it up to be one of the top 50 albums of the year and received extensive radio play.
in october 2002, keep on pushing was skilfully reworked and reshaped by some of the country's leading producers into the remix album pushed. jet jaguar's coming back home remix reached no.1 on the local student radio charts and the album went on to sell well.
february 2004 saw the new zealand release of on the sun through capitol/emi records. the 11-track album debuted at no. 3 in the album charts and reached gold sales status within six weeks of its release. on the sun again featured the reggae and dub sounds made popular on their debut but also introduced the heavy funk and soul flavours which had become a regular feature of their live shows.
since forming in 1998, the black seeds have gained a reputation as one of new zealand's finest live acts. the band regularly sells out new zealand shows and tours and in april 2003 completed a successful 16-gig tour of australia to coincide with the release there of keep on pushing. in april 2004 they returned across the tasman for a four date tour which saw them playing to packed houses in sydney and melbourne. the black seeds also play regular headline slots at some of new zealand's leading music festivals including alpine unity, the gathering, soundsplash and the rippon festival.
keep on pushing and pushed have been released as a double album in france, belgium and switzerland through productions speciales, with the first single reaching no 29 in france?s ?groove? charts and no 100 in the overall french single charts. a similar double pack has also come out in the u.s and japan through the californian label kuffala recordings.
their last album was released on july 17th 2006 in new zealand and went straight in at number one in nz, and has now sold over 30,000 copies. it was released by cult german label sonar kollektiv in the summer of 2007 to great acclaim.
the boys are currently beavering away on their fourth, as yet untitled, album which is due for release this summer.
