Our breakthrough album has finally been pressed on vinyl.

Ape to Angel took the momentum of our preceding albums to new levels, with the sound becoming fuller and the bass more driving. We tweaked the sounds of club culture around the dub heart of the album, blending sinuous bass lines, simmering rhythms and echoing acidic synths to electrifying effect. We also wrote our first fully vocal song, “Elements Turn”, with veteran singer Sandy Mill, and sampled Estonian satellite transmissions for “Lost in Translation”.

Originally unleashed in New Zealand in October 2004 by Kog Transmissions, the album’s infectious rhythms weaved their way round the world, finding fans from Copenhagen to Cape Town, and securing release in North America by the esteemed Waveform label, Europe by Dubmission and Japan by the cult Wakyo imprint.

Critically acclaimed, with DJ Mag awarding it five stars, the release of Ape to Angel led to a 42 date tour round the world which included our North American debut. Tracks from the album were also picked up for use in CSI: Miami and HBO¹s True Blood, the latter featuring “Freefall" in a vampire orgy scene - perfect.

To create the double-vinyl release, Angus McNaughton re-mastered the original audio files, and Hamish Macaulay adapted the source artwork by Shane Cotton and created a brand new collage for the centrefold using pictures taken at the time. There is also an additional track, Protect The Grain, which was originally only available on the limited edition Flex EP, recorded just before the Ape sessions began.

Buy Vinyl

Pitch Black - Ape to Angel Vinyl

Futureproof finally gets a vinyl release, 23 years after it first came out.

The album distilled two years of relentless touring of New Zealand into a sweeping colossus full of epic soundscapes and rumbling basslines, pounding rhythms and mind-bending effects, showcasing our dubwise styles to full, bass-bin busting effect.

Futureproof’s mix of dub, delay and devastation was received to critical and commercial acclaim, rising to the top of the New Zealand electronic charts, and was followed by a sold-out tour of New Zealand alongside Salmonella Dub.

The album’s sophisticated mix of dub and dance set a benchmark by which future New Zealand electronica releases would be measured, and has gone on to find fans around the globe. True to its name, Futureproof sounds as timeless and fresh today as it did in 1998.

To celebrate the 23rd anniversary of the release, we dug out the original audio files and Angus McNaughton has re-mastered them for this vinyl release. Hamish Macaulay has also adapted the original artwork, creating a brand new collage for the centerfold out of pictures taken at the time.

Pitch Black - The Gatherer (preview)

We're stoked to release a brand new remix by the legendary Adrian Sherwood (OnU Sound) of "Transient Transmission", taken from our 2009 album "Rude Mechanicals".

The remix came about when Italian dub producer soundcloud.com/gaudi messaged to say he wanted us to be part of the second instalment of his Sub Signals series. He asked if we would be interested in approaching mutual friend Adrian Sherwood to remix one of his favourite tracks of ours, "Transient Transmission".

To help make something truely different, Mike reached out to Dave Fullwood from Ital Horns (who he'd been helping over lockdowns to record any trumpet parts he needed to supply) to re-interperet the song with a new melody. Once the new horn line was recorded, Mike then headed to Ramsgate for a day of dub and delay at OnU Sound Studios.

Adrian Sherwood's Delta B(0)=B remix of "Transient Transmission" is the second single from Gaudi's "Sub Signals, Vol.2", out December 12th - https://smarturl.it/subsignals2

Pitch Black - Transient Transmission (Adrian Sherwood's Delta B(0)=B Remix)(preview)

Back in the early nineties, Mike mixed a live show by Christchurch reggae band Ras Bonte. Their last song of the night was a cover of Exodus, and Mike had one of those ephemeral moments where the band and the live desk dub mix locked in sync, and the sound just took off.

For years we have talked about trying to re-create that moment, and have finally risen to the challenge. Featuring Sandy Mill on vocals and David Fullwood from Ital Horns on brass, we are delighted to present a 21st century version of a classic tune, complete with a fruity Misled Convoy re-rub.

Making Exodus made us think of the climate migrations that we are going to see more of in the coming years. We commissioned visual artist Delainy Kennedy to make a video that reflected this global issue, with the cover image being a still taken from the final cut.

To support the release, we’re heading out on tour this November:

04 Hide, Christchurch                                              
05 Waitati Music Festival, Dunedin                      
11 The Mothership, Auckland                               
12 Totara Street, Tauranga                                    
13 Yot Club, Raglan                                               
17 Porridge Watson, Whanganui
18 San Fran, Wellington                    
19 The Cabana, Napier

Tickets from https://www.pitchblacknz.com/songkick.html

Pitch Black - Exodus (Version)(preview)

1. Te Po (Pitch Black Remix)
Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns 
2006
First released on "Te Whaiao: Te Ku Te Whe Remixed"
Original written by Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns 
Published by Rattle Records
Kindly licensed from Rattle Records
rattlerecords.net

Buy the Album

Hiriniri Melbourne & Richard Nunns - Te Po (Pitch Black Remix)(preview)

3. House Of The Rising Dub (Pitch Black Remix)
International Observer
2009
Original track written and produced by Tom Bailey
Published by Copyright Control/Native Tongue Music Publishing
Kindly licensed from Dubmission Records
facebook.com/internationalobserver

International Observer - House of the Rising Dub (Pitch Black Remix)(preview)

6. Sensimillia (Pitch Black's Sensi Dub)
Katchafire
2006
First released on "Homegrown Dub" (Mai Music)
Orginal track written by Logan Bell, Jordan Bell, Jaimey Ferguson, Ara Adams-Tamatea and T Hohepa
Published by Local Music/Mushroom Music
Kindly licensed from Local Music
katchafire.co.nz

Katchafire - Sensimillia (Pitch Black's Sensi Dub)(preview)

9. A New Day (Pitch Black Remix)
Laya Project
2010
First released on "A New Day - Laya Project Remixed" (EarthSync)
Original written by Patric Sebag + Yotam Agam
Published by EarthSync
Kindly licensed from EarthSync
layaproject.com

Laya Project - A New Day (Pitch Black Remix)(preview)

Pitch Black - Empty Spaces, Missing Units (preview)

Pitch Black - The Random Smiler (Live)(preview)

Pitch Black - Protect The Grain (preview)

Pitch Black - Lost In Translation (preview)

Pitch Black - Freefall (preview)

Pitch Black - Flex (preview)

Pitch Black - Ape To Angel (preview)

Pitch Black - Big Trouble Upstairs (preview)

Pitch Black - Elements Turn (preview)

For reasons long forgotten, soundcloud.com/tomcosm's bass heavy and squelchtastic remix of Sonic Colonic was never properly released back in the day, an oversight that came to light recently thanks to soundcloud.com/globular's Select Cuts #2 compilation (which you can hear at https://soundcloud.com/dubmissionrecords/sets/select-cuts-2-globular)

As it sounds as great now as it did 14 years ago, we're happy to finally address the omission on the cusp of our European tour.

07/07 Ostroda Reggae Festival, Poland
08/07 Give! Festival, UK
09/07 Noisily Festival, UK
13/07 Colours, London
14/07 The Jam Jar, Bristol
15/07 Morgans, Manchester
16/07 Beat-herder Festival, UK
21/07 Mephisto, Koblenz
23/07 Seasplash Festival, Croatia
27/07 Urban Spree, Berlin
29/07 Loop, Wien
31/07 Ozora Festival, Hungary

Info and tickets > http://www.songkick.com/artists/358829-pitch-black

Sonic Colonic (Tom Cosm Remix)

Free download

Pitch Black - Sonic Colonic (Tom Cosm Remix)

Taken from our new album "Remixes + Rarities"
Out June 13th 2011

The Opaque (Pitch Black Remix)
Tom Cosm
2011
Original track written and produced by Tom Cosm
Published by Copyright Control
cosm.co.nz

Tom Cosm - The Opaque (Pitch Black Remix)(preview)

Sines and Singularities

Ape To Angel (Bluetech Remix)

Pitch Black return with their fourth and possibly their best album so far. “Rude Mechanicals” embraces all that is good about dance music and electronica, spiced up by the trademark Pitch Black blend of echoes, delays and deep, fat basslines.

The band have always been avowed fans of music in general (as opposed to any one style in particular), and it certainly shows here: the album kicks off with the lush “South of the Line” before dubbing it up, year 3000 style, with “1000 Mile Drift”. “Sonic Colonic” kicks the tempo up a gear as the only real four-to-the-floor stomper on the album. “Bird Soul” reminds one that Paddy Free spent years producing Salmonella Dub, as it takes their guitar driven drum and bass style and wraps it in an ambient dub envelope.

“Harmonia” is an exquisite piece of electronica, reminiscent of Speedy J or Black Dog. It is followed by “Rude Mechanicals”, which marks a departure from the norm for the boys, featuring rapper KP from the infamous Sunshine Soundsystem, who waxes lyrical about the destruction being wrought on the planet by our environmental ignorance and general greed. “Fragile Ladders” provides some much needed breathing space before “Please Leave Quietly” destroys what is left of the bass speakers”!

Rude Mechanicals is a genre busting excursion in sound, heaving with warm basslines and complex rhythm’s, topped up by haunting melodies and, for a change, cutting social commentary. To adapt a previous quote about them, this album is like “Underworld meets King Tubby”, in all the best ways possible…………………………………..

Pitch Black - South Of The Line (preview)

Pitch Black - 1000 Mile Drift (preview)

Pitch Black - Transient Transmission (Deep Fried Dub Remix) (preview)

Pitch Black - Please Leave Quietly (Johnny Hooves Remix) (preview)

To celebrate the end of our 20th anniversary tour, we'd like to share with you this live recording of our show closer 'Lost in (Bird) Soul)'.

An unholy alliance between 'Lost in Translation' (from 'Ape to Angel') and 'Bird Soul' (from 'Rude Mechanicals'), the track was born when we were working out the tunes we wanted to play on the tour and found that the two originals segued well. We played around a bit, and were very happy to find we could do more than segue - we could actually merge the two into one. From there, the live process took over and new elements were added and old ones removed, and a suitable end to the 20th anniversary tour set was born.

It proved to be an excellent set closer as we could tease out the riffs and rinse out the drums and bass for a superbly long time. We both love drum and bass, so it was also good to end a set that began in dub with d'n'b beats.

We recorded all the shows of the tour, but this recording from OZORA Festival in Hungary stood out the best. We are very grateful to Marton, Agnes and the crew for looking after us and to the audience for creating such an awesome atmosphere.

For the spotters, Steve Barrow utters the line "and the treble will be sharp, sharp like a knife, and the bass and drum will be heavy" and 2 Many DJs provide the closing "the dub echoes go as far as the machine lets you go, that's as far as it goes". Both samples come from the fabulous documentary 'Dub Echoes', which you can watch at www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPVDrKiNVg4

Thanks again to everyone who helped us put on our 20th anniversary tour: Northern Bass, Rhythm and Alps, Luminate, Splore, Electric Avenue, Neck of the Woods, Yot Club, Chk One, Oslo, OCCII, Disfish records, Gala Hala, Seasplash, Together, Boomtown, Tribe of Frog and Whirlyfayre.

Download for free

Pitch Black - Lost In (Bird) Soul (Live at OZORA '17)(Free Download)

Inspired by the Mad Professor’s interpretation of Massive Attack's 'Protection' and Adrian Sherwood’s version of Primal Scream’s 'Echo Dek', our friend, the maverick Dutch producer Uncle Fester on Acid, perhaps better known as Dr Dub, the official archivist for the ON.U Sound record label, took it upon himself to dismantle our 'Filtered Senses' album and rebuild it from scratch. Not one track, but every single track on the whole album, from beginning to end.

The result is a truly psychedelic adventure where reality as you know it (in this case our original album) is totally flipped and tripped. The result feels like an interpretation of Pitch Black from another universe - Uncle Fester's universe that is. At times, the tracks are totally different and unrecognizable; at others, strangely familiar and close to the original.

No Sense Unfiltered

Pitch Black X Uncle Fester On Acid - Passive Clown (preview)

Our remix of soundcloud.com/desertdwellers's Praise Her, The Fire Keeper

Breath Reimagined Vol. 1

Desert Dwellers - Praise Her, The Fire Keeper (Pitch Black Remix)

We're proud to follow up our “Third Light” album with a companion selection of remixes entitled “The Light Within”, with the remixers hailing from across the globe *and* the bass music spectrum. The resultant ten-track collection is playful, spiritual and sensory, with upbeat tempos and slithering effects woven deep into the rhythmic pulses and dark undercurrents of our original tracks.

Bookended by uptempo versions of “Daylight Wasting” from International Observer and Berlin bassheads qnp, “The Light Within” features contemporary bass cuts from Portland’s Bodie and Christchurch’s Akcept, downtempo grooves by Argentinian dubsalon and South Korean mcthfg, dancefloor dubs from Mexico’s Tor.Ma in Dub and Brisbanite SUBSET, as well as drum and bass by Wellingtonian Zuke and the legendary UK producer Adrian Sherwood.

Contemplative but cheerful, either way, as “A Doubtful Sound” states, ‘The rhythm IS gonna get ya!’

The Light Within

Pitch Black - Daylight Wasting (International Observer's Durian Hook Remix)(preview)

After touring and developing the songs for “Futureproof”, we were faced with a very different reality as we embarked on our second album, the as yet un-named “Electronomicon”. All but one of the tracks on “Futureproof” had been performed live before heading into the studio to record them and now we were making an album first, with live performances of the new material to follow.

We set up in an underground studio space in Newton, Auckland adjacent to a friends’ PA company and began to develop both songs and visuals from scratch.

We asked drummer Nick Gaffney, singer Caitlin Smith and space guitarist Andrew Penman to come and jam over some of the rough tracks. They were gracious to let us cut up and process their material and then use that to develop the tracks further. We had the use of a large-format 1980s Amek Angela mixing console, which we objectified for “her” silky highs and round bottom. Mike was in analog dub heaven!    

After much audio wrangling and data disasters, “Electronomicon” was released by Kog Transmissions on September 7th 2000 (entering the national charts at #45, and rising to #28) and we celebrated by touring with Shapeshifter, Salmonella Dub Soundsystem and DJ Automatic. 

We’ve always wanted to release the album on vinyl, so to mark its 20th anniversary, we dug out the original audio files and asked Angus McNaughton to re-master them. Hamish Macaulay has then adapted Fiona Jack’s original artwork and created a brand new collage for the gatefold, using photos taken at the time.

Pitch Black - Reptile Room (preview)

Taken from "Frequencies Fall", a collection of remixes of tracks from "Ape to Angel"

Pitch Black - Lost in Translation (International Observer meets Horace remix)(preview)

This Christmas day, soundcloud.com/pitchblacknz release the final single from their acclaimed "Third Light" album, the closing track “Did You Get the Message”.

Initially inspired by the activities of Extinction Rebellion, but carrying new weight in the wake of the pandemic, the questioning message to society is enhanced by an eerie melody and dislocating sound effects.

Colorado's soundcloud.com/erothyme douses the original in layers of homebrewed extra-sultry sweetsauce to create a midtempo groovegasm, while Wellingtonian soundcloud.com/Zukebeats channels the duo's hope for a more harmonious future into a drum and bass banger.

Pitch Black - Did You Get The Message (Zuke's VIP Remix)(preview)

Pitch Black are Michael Hodgson and Paddy Free. Having pumped their way through New Zealand’s electronic music scene since their inaugural performance at the annual Gathering New Year's eve festival in 1996, they have spent the subsequent years rousing dance floor punters, generating rave reviews, winning awards and gaining thousands of fans across the world. 

Hard to box into a single audio 'genre', Pitch Black is a combination of musical journeys. Their sound is distinctive; ranging from organic ambient beginnings and layered soundscapes to skanking keyboards, cutting acid riffs and thumping rhythmic grooves, with dub being the glue that holds their sound together. One critic has described them as like "Orbital meets King Tubby, or Rhythm and Sound in Technicolor". 

It is their live show that really makes Pitch Black stand out from the rest of the crowd, both sonically and visually. Their tracks take on an added dynamism and their performances reveal the dialectic behind the band - Paddy wants to do it for the crowd, Michael wants to do it to the crowd. Visually they are in another dimension thanks to Michael's cutting edge visuals.

They have toured the world relentlessly, playing everywhere from Amsterdam to Zagreb and the streets of Las Vegas to the Australian outback, supporting acts such as Coldcut, Skream, Easy Dub All Stars and System 7 along the way.

NZ Bookings: h (at) strikeagency.co.nz
RoW Bookings: info (at) dubmissionrecords.com

Pitch Black (NZ)

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