Sweet Baboo's earliest musical influences were fellow Welsh musicians such as
Super Furry Animals and
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. Later influences have included
The Beach Boys,
Dire Straits,
Squeeze and
Jonathan Richman. His musical style has been described as a mix of
country and
psychedelic – idiosyncratic, with a skill for writing darkly funny to piercingly tender lyrics. Sweet Baboo has performed extensively at festivals such as
Glastonbury,
Festival N°6 and
Latitude; he's been a regular performer at the
Green Man Festival. He has worked with
Cate Le Bon,
Slow Club,
Aldous Harding and
H. Hawkline, and has also performed with and produced/recorded
Euros Childs,
The Pictish Trail,
The Voluntary Butler Scheme and
Islet, and collaborated with
Gruff Rhys. Sweet Baboo's album ''I'm a Dancer / Songs about Sleepin''' was nominated for the first
Welsh Music Prize in 2011. Sweet Baboo launched single "Let's Go Swimming Wild" in 2012 as a free download. After winning
BBC Radio 6 Music's "Rebel Playlist" weekly singles competition on the
Steve Lamacq show, it was constantly played on the station, hourly on the hour. "If I Died...", the second single from his upcoming album, was released in March 2013 to much critical acclaim. To celebrate that month's
St. David's Day, a Welsh-language version of the song (co-written with H. Hawkline) was released online. The third single from the album, "C'Mon Let's Mosh", was released in July 2013, having also won the 6 Music "Rebel Playlist" competition in June. The album
Ships was released in April 2013 on
Moshi Moshi Records. Sweet Baboo followed the release with his first headlining tour in the UK and also performed solo shows and band shows in several festivals during summer 2013. Another headlining tour followed later in the year. The album was nominated for the
Welsh Music Prize in 2013. On 11 November 2013, Sweet Baboo released an EP titled
Motorhome Songs. In July 2014, Moshi Moshi released a limited edition 12" vinyl collection of tracks recorded during sessions on
Marc Riley's show on BBC 6 Music over the previous decade. The release was followed by a short series of performances named
The Test Pressings Tour and a duo tour with
The Pictish Trail. The duo returned to that set for a one-off performance at the 2015
Green Man Festival, where Black also performed a full-band set (featuring The Mavron Quartet) and as part of the bands accompanying H. Hawkline and Meilyr Jones. In December 2014, Black contributed vocals to
Mowbird's
Lady Lion EP on Shape Records. He also played saxophone on the track "Lady Low" from
Teleman's 2014 debut album
Breakfast. His following album,
The Boombox Ballads, was released in August 2015, again on Moshi Moshi. The track "You Got Me Time Keeping" features Tender Prey (Laura Bryon) on vocals. In March 2016, he released an EP,
Dennis, which featured unreleased tracks from the recordings of
The Boombox Ballads and two covers, one of them of a
Dennis Wilson track. Sweet Baboo's next album,
Wild Imagination, was released in June 2017 on Moshi Moshi. In October 2017 the album was nominated for the 2016–2017
Welsh Music Prize. In October 2022, Black announced a new Sweet Baboo album - the first new music from this project in five years - with the single "Good Luck", written by H. Hawkline. The album
The Wreckage was released in January 2023 on Black's own label Amazing Tapes from Canton. Collaborating with musician Paul Jones, Black has released albums under the name Group Listening.
Clarinet & Piano: Selected Works Vol.1 (2018) and
Clarinet & Piano: Selected Works Vol. 2 (2022) were re-workings of existing tracks by a wide variety of musicians, and
Walks (2024) is their first composed of original material. Black also continues to produce, record and participate in Euros Childs's solo albums. ==Personal life==