KEY POINTS:
Birds, stags and booze are behind the latest Salmonella Dub album - but it's not what you think. Tuis are chirping in the background the day the band's guitarist, Andrew Penman comes on the line. He's in Kaikoura, where they recorded their sixth album in their custom-built studio
overlooking the sea and surrounded by kowhai trees. As for the stags, you can hear Penman's falsetto impersonation of the wild animals on the track, Heal Me.
"That was inspired by a rather late-night session with the old whisky. I remember walking out of the studio and hearing these stags calling and thinking 'I'll give that a go'."
Over 15 years and six albums, the Dub have always found inspiration in nature, whether it's the cooee of the conch, thunderous bass or their coastal reggae-dub rhythms. But the elements are more evident this time. After burning themselves out on tour through Aussie and Europe last year, the original line-up of Penman, drummer and vocalist Dave Deakins and bassist Mark Tyler, plus horn-player Pete Wood, committed to taking some creative space. They spent four months workshopping lyrics and melodies and shared the vocals among them.
Although it's not necessarily a mellower album, there's the distinct feeling the band have had more time to reflect on their environment, a process that has sanded off the edges since their last album, One Drop East, four years ago. That's evident on new songs such as Watching It Rain, Lightning and Love, Sunshine and Happiness, the latter about pollution threatening their favourite fishing spots.
Although the band are taking a hiatus from the road, they will play AUT's Orientation in October, and early next year they plan to realise their long-held dream of playing with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra with guest artists such as Whirimako Black.
Heal Me is their most vocal-heavy album, partly thanks to their American producer David Harrow.
"He's worked with hip-hop artists and people who talk a lot. He wanted us to focus more on the words. We've always been a big fan of our soundscapes, and there's still a lot of that in there, but the vocals developed without us really meaning for them to."
Despite their hiatus from touring, Penman is adamant it's the closest they've come to capturing their live sound, particularly on the wobbly-bottomed Rong, a dub-heavy track that harks back to their rootsier style of old.
It wasn't all love, sunshine and happiness leading up to the album's release. Last year Penman's mother was found to have the rare condition of a melanoma on her lung.
"She was in the hospital ward surrounded by all these sick and dying people with tubes sticking out of her and hooked up to a running machine."
She has since healed, and you can't help but wonder if the Dub's lush new sound had something to do with it. Where once they were about the menacing wall of bass, breaks and MCing that was Tha Bromley East Roller, now the Dub are better represented by the lush, dubby Seeds: "I feel the season change".
There were also changes in the line-up. Former sound engineer-turned-star-MC Tiki Taane left the band to focus on his solo album.
"Tiki is a really creative guy and he had a need to create certain things that perhaps he wasn't getting from Salmonella Dub," says Penman. "We were also becoming more aware of his other involvements with bands like Shapeshifter, and having to worry about double-booking. It just felt like the right time."
Meanwhile, newly married sax player Conan Wilcox opted out to spend more time at home (although he does appear on two tracks). Penman also has a 9-month-old baby "which I suppose has changed my headspace".
He's keen to get away from the notion of the band plus the frontman and return to the good old days when they jammed as one unit.
"Change is a good thing. It's really exciting. It's overdue probably. It's really scary because we're going out of our comfort zone and trying things we've haven't before. We'd got ourselves into a bit of a rut and we'd become a bit of a show band. We wanted to reinvent ourselves really. We almost feel that we've come full circle."
Salmonella Dub: Heal Me
(Salmonella Dub/Virgin)
Verdict: Sixth album has healing qualities but needs Vitamin B
Herald rating: * * *
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Who: Salmonella Dub
Albums: Salmonella Dub (1994), Calming of the Drunken Monkey (1997), Killervision (1999), Inside the Dub Plates (2001), One Drop East (2004), Heal Me (2007)