The Black Seeds, one of our foremost reggae acts and popular live bands, are back with their sixth studio album, ‘Fabric’.

The Wellingtonians have spent the last couple of decades crafting a unique brand of reggae mingled with a plethora of other styles of music, including dub, funk and soul.

The overall sound is often reminiscent either of a 70s era funk record or an 80s dancehall record, while still managing to sound musically fresh and contemporary.

Leaning considerably into the dubbier side of things, the album deploys a rich and diverse arsenal of psychedelic effects and colourful production techniques. This has been achieved using sounds that are characteristically analogue and gritty, particularly in the drums and dubby delays departments.

The entire track list is sickeningly groovy, pretty much constantly, and switches up the pace with every track.

The album starts off upbeat and full of their characteristic positive messaging with Better Days. There is a thick streak of the currently resurgent synth funk style through the album, most evident on tracks Freakin and The Weaver.

Moving On and Beleza are uncompromisingly skanky and are characteristic examples of the NZ dub-reggae sound.

The catchiest earworms on the album are found on Back To You, and title track Fabric is a pure and deeply dub exploration that’s effects-heavy and sonically rich and colourful.

The closing track is the infectious Lost in the Bush, a funky number that rides the album out on a wave of lush synth textures.