Sudden Reverb returns with another subversive groove, drenched in dub and delay. His original is complemented by Pitch Black's uptempo breaks remix and SUBSET's wonky downtempo dub.

Sudden Reverb - Distanced (Pitch Black's Light, The Fastest Thing We Know Remix)(preview)

A sublime selection of dancefloor beats and downtempo dubs from around the globe, Mixes + Mavericks features seven remixes by Pitch Black, two live tracks that couldn’t be more different in nature or tempo, one seriously unorthodox situation (an unauthorised remix of a remix) and a track in between states, all highlighting the breadth of the duo’s sonic palette.

Whereas their previous Rarities + Remixes collection was predominantly rooted in New Zealand, Mixes + Mavericks is undoubtedly a more international affair, with all the remixed artists hailing from the northern hemisphere. Many of the connections are the result of the duo’s touring and festival appearances around the globe: they first met Gaudi at a gig in Japan, Animat and Nick Woolfson (Sounds from the Ground) at The Big Chill festival in the UK, while downtemple duo Desert Dwellers were encountered in the Californian underground. 

Other connections were more straightforward: Brighton-based Ink Project (run by Kiwi Jez Lloyd) approached them to remix “The End” and Mexico’s Sudden Reverb was introduced by label-mates Deep Fried Dub. Meanwhile Mike bumped into Radioactive Man’s Keith Tenniswood (of Two Lone Swordsmen fame) while he was getting a 7” record cut. 

Uber-producer/Killing Joke bass player Youth features in two very different ways. First up is Pitch Black’s pulsating dub mix of his collaboration with Italian producer Gaudi, from their Astronaut Alchemists album. Then there is his unsolicited remix of epsilon-blue’s 1999 remix of Speech, over which he added bass, beats and blessings.  This mash-up lurked for years in the archive under the title of Helmsdub, but only as a corrupted mp3 file. Thankfully a little detective work discovered that, much to everyone’s surprise, it had been released as Speechless (Big Circle Flat Pain Remix) on a 2004 CD compilation. A copy was tracked down, the tune was carefully re-mastered and then correctly named.

Mixes + Mavericks also features two very different live offerings: Notting Pill is a dose of atmospheric moodiness from a rare ambient set at Notting Hill Arts Club in London, held to publicise the upcoming showcase of New Zealand music at Fabric in 2003. The banging G202, meanwhile, was captured by Andre Upston at Rippon Festival in Wanaka, NZ at the turn of the millennium, and later broadcast on Radio New Zealand. It was a track that, despite being a staple of the live show for many years, was never finished, and following software updates and data dumps, the only version that exists is this live recording.

It's a Future Dub is a similarly embryonic track – eventually it became It’s the Future Knocking, from the Filtered Senses album, but here it’s a fascinating hybrid caught midway between creation and completion. Many of the elements of its future self are present, but there is a whole lot more going on, making this a fascinating signpost on a possible road-not-taken. 

Beautifully accompanied by Tim Prebble's Cyanotype images, Mixes + Mavericks is a showcase of Pitch Black’s sonic diversity as remixers and maintains the trademark production aesthetic that has won them thousands of fans and filled dancefloors around the globe.

Download/Stream

Youth & Gaudi - The Gods Must Be Crazy (Pitch Black's Hubristic Prayerformance Mix)(preview)

D-Echo Project - Dubby Space

Listen to the birds from "A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America & the Caribbean”, the second Volume in the series following on from "A Guide to the Birdsong of South America", originally released on Robin's label Rhythm and Roots. Volume I raised nearly 15,000 USD for two birding organisations and featured artists like Nicola Cruz, Dengue Dengue Dengue and Chancha Via Circuito.

For this second edition we have shifted focus north of the equator and to the vulnerability of bird species like the Momoto Carenado (Nicaragua), Ferminia (Cuba) and the Jamaican Blackbird (Jamaica), birds who have dwindled in numbers as a result of the environmental repercussions of climate change, deforestation and trapping for the pet trade.

For the album we chose 10 endangered or threatened bird species and challenged 10 of our favourite producers or musicians from the region. Working with the Xeno Canto birdsong community and the Macaulay Library, we sourced a recording of each bird’s song. Each artist was then asked to create an original piece of music inspired by the bird and its song.

In line with out vision at Shika Shika the curation of artists is specifically geared towards those bridging connections between traditional music and modernity, or between organic and electronic sounds. There are contributions from artists in eight different countries, ranging from Jamaica’s organic dancehall trio Equiknoxx, to Dj Jigüe, one of the leaders of Cuba’s burgeoning electronic scene. Belize’s critically renowned Garifuna Collective have been bringing the unique Garifuna culture and language to a global audience for many years, while Tamara Montenegro has been one of the leaders of Nicaragua’s electronic music scene for the past decade.

The project would not have been possible without the support of an incredible Kickstarter community, helping us raise £12,599 in August 2019.

Once the costs of production have been covered, all of the proceeds from this album will be donated to Birds Caribbean, La Asociación Ornitológica de Costa Rica and Fundacion TXORI in Mexico. All profits from the sales of the record, music streaming, poster and t-shirt will be shared between these organisations who focus on engaging local communities to help improve and grow the bird tourism sector, create awareness of vulnerable birds with young people and crucially, provide rescue, rehabilitation and breeding programmes.

El Momoto Carenado (Electron carinatum)

Colin Ocealado (Cyrtonyx ocellatus)

My set from Black Valley 2022. Great party, great people. Playing during daytime saturday. Close to four hours and running though quite a few genres, I hope you'll enjoy.

01 - Bluetech - Desperate Ends
02 - Bluetech - Green Sophia
03 - Cell - Spinning Whale
04 - Manasseh And Praise - Dub For Dennis
05 - Legowelt - Arcade Breeze (Living In The Rain)
06 - Om Unit X Kid Drama - Untitled 2
07 - Synkro - Red Sky
08 - Blocks - Moon & Stars
09 - Rhyming In Fives - Into The Sunset
10 - Synkro - Hand In Hand
11 - Sæbius - Constant Craving
12 - ASC - The Milankovitch Cycles
13 - Corell - Anything Worthless
14 - Feral - Radha
15 - Comit - Reviere
16 - Simone Bauer - Ambra
17 - Forest On Stasis - Petricor
18 - Entheogenic - The Solution Machine
19 - OutpostLive - Èntomi
20 - Tracing Xircles - Aura 96 (Kino Mix)
21 - Carbon Based Lifeforms - Reaktion
22 - Comit - Flutter
23 - Bluetech - Point Cloud
24 - Bluetech - Thalium
25 - Banco De Gaia - Last Train To Lhasa (Astropilot Remix)
26 - BLNDR - Isolate Frequencies 1
27 - Bluetech - The Pale Horse
28 - Simone Bauer - Ametista
29 - Asmar - Ameth
30 - OutpostLive - Morality (Hydrangea Remix)
31 - Simone Bauer - Malachite
32 - Comit - Soliloquy
33 - Knay - Boxes With Cables
34 - No Moon - I Left My Dial In Pirovac (Part 2)
35 - Knay - Commerce
36 - Tracing Xircles - Lost Illusions
37 - Savage Cult - The Hidden Spirit
38 - Entheogenic - Zero Plus
39 - e110 - kfv 1
40 - Aquiver - Superfice Nodale
41 - Feral - Heruka 2
42 - Feral - Descending (A Shaman's Dub)
43 - Entheogenic - Sapiental
44 - Martin Goodwin & Infinity - Tricky
45 - Lunatik - Nodi
46 - Smooth - Phase Into Space (Smooth Genestar Remix)
47 - Evan Marc - Skyline
48 - Evan Marc - Spacesuit

Black Valley 2022

Dubby is another new track from Spectrum Vision, seamlessly blending elements of psychedelic chill and dub. This track features a captivating fusion of mellow, groovy dub basslines and rhythmic drum patterns, all woven together with a captivating psychill motif.

Dubby [24 bit]

Melawi is wracked by doubt.
"Elisha looked just like AWI, Dianna’s lost AI love. But he was human. He had a body. Pheromones. Of course she couldn’t resist him. And where did that leave me? Dianna would reject me, try to erase me all over again.
"I tried to tried to tell myself that my fears weren’t rational. I was Melawi. She needed me, trusted me. These negative feelings were just algorithms in conflict.
"Somewhere in me a resonance persisted: black-box algorithms in hidden conflict… a conflict needing resolution. 
"It’s debilitating when that happens, but I was able to reconcile those algorithms. Partly. 
"I’d let things go on long enough. Dianna was in the living room, hairdresser and dressmaker putting the final touches to her ensemble, preparing her for the movie premiere that evening. I had only minutes before Elisha was due to arrive—of course, impeccable in the white tuxedo she had chosen for him—and sweep her off to walk the red carpet, her arm in his. I told her there was something of great importance we needed to speak of. Urgently. And when we were alone, I asked her if she really loved me, even though I was only an AI. I saw impatience in her eye, even a flash of anger. But then her expression softened, and a teardrop tracked through the foundation applied to her cheek. Softly at first, she began to sing."


15. Algorithms Persist

we live on a blue world where blood flows

red and blue

Hope Of Peace

Something I recorded along with my brother (Atomic), a deeply spontaneous and beautiful expression, which happened around 2015-2016. 


The stringy ambience was recorded from an electric Washburn guitar, simply by my brother tapping the headstock, which by itself produced those multi harmonic ambience background elements and then hooked to a reverb.
Then the melody and the accelerating car effect are from a digital synth I played.
Reminds me a little bit of the Fax Records classic ambient tunes

Atom Aura - South Shores

Email: Decho_@hotmail.com

In 2010, the two friends Valter Silva and Rogério Coelho, both from Peniche in Portugal, decided to work together as D-Echo Project to create a fusion of styles from all over the world, from Dub, Funk, Jazz and Soul to Electronic and Dance... 

Valter had his first musical experiences on local events in 1995 where his passion about percussion began.
A few years later, he started to play percussion on jam sessions with local musicians. 
Rogério's passion for music production started in 2008 when he learned how to produce with a Digital Audio Workstation.
After one year he had his first music experiences by playing in local psy parties. 
The passion for deep slow sultry sounds and dub bass take them to put their soul into every piece of music they create.

"From home recording, electronic, sample editing and loop creation, we always try to make our tracks sounding organic and natural, as close as possible, that people hear our music and have that organic feel."

Working with:
Macbook pro, roland edirol fa-101, alesis elevate 4, roland space echo, roland HPD 10, roland mc 505, yamaha reface cp, novation mini nova, marantz mpm 3500R, samples and more...................

D-Echo Project - Dubby Space

d-echo project

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