THE BLACK SEEDSTitle: “Solid Ground”

Label: Easy Star

Performance: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15, with John Brown’s Body and Public Property

Where: The Industry, 211 Iowa Ave., Iowa City

Tickets: $10 in advance through www.ticketweb.com or $12 at the door

Eight talents blokes from Wellington, New Zealand, use horns, synthesizers, organ, percussion and clear, crisp vocals to blur the lines between musical styles.

“Come to Me,” the first track off the CD that hits North American shores later this month, immediately reels you in. Its heavy percussive slaps grab your attention. Next come the surprising flings of cosmic synthesizer bursts before spinning off into a reggae-infused beat.

The only problem is that describes most of the tracks on the band’s fourth studio album.

Still, the Seeds offer up a beat and blend that get your feet moving. And my favorite aspect is the liberal use of horns to give a sort of Tower of Power funk throughout.

I started getting bored by track 4, “Love is a Radiation,” a trite ditty that hits like a bad ’80s flashback. Not all of the flashbacks are that traumatic. “One Step at a Time” sounds like it belongs on a James Bond soundtrack, and 007 is always fun shaken, not stirred. It also reminds me of “Let’s Dance,” David Bowie at his vintage best.

Trumpet adds some soul punch to “Afrophone,” then the horns return to dress up “Rotten Apple,” a surprisingly cool cut that starts with a low rumble and grows with an infectious beat.

The instrumentals take over on “The Bubble.” The best of two bonus tracks, it pairs smooth sax and fluegelhorn against a gathering wash of sound that ends with an ocean liner-type bellow before fading into silence.

Best track: “Bulletproof.” This cut melds the band’s best ammo into one song that hits its target dead-on.