Pitch Black

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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 1997, Pitch Black have spent the last seven years rousing dance floor punters, generating rave reviews, winning awards and gaining thousands of fans across Australasia and Europe. Hard to box into a single audio 'genre', Pitch Black is a combination of musical journeys, created by Paddy Free and Michael Hodgson. 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 sounding like "Richie Hawtim meets King Tubby, or Rhythm and Sound in Technicolor".

Their debut album, Futureproof, was released in September 1999 and rose to the top of the New Zealand electronic charts, despite no marketing or advertising. Their second album, Electronomicon, followed in August 2000, and led to a sell out 30-date tour of New Zealand and Australia. Both albums spawned remix projects, featuring mixes by local luminaries such as International Observer, Epsilon Blue and Downtown Brown. Their last offering to date was a 5 track EP, released to coincide with their 2003 tour of New Zealand and their annual jaunt to Europe for a round of shows.

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 due to some crafty code developed by Michael and Ross George in the early '90's - a live interactive video program, MIDEO, which allows video to be triggered off the beats as they are created, so the images are moving and flowing with the set as it evolves. It is not for nothing that they have been hailed as the "Hexstatic of New Zealand" and have been warmly embraced by England's Big Chill community - playing 3 times at their annual festival.

Over the years they have also found favour among many DJs, both radio and club, including John Peel (Radio One/BBC), Nick Luscombe (Xfm), Greg Roberts (Dreadzone) and Pete Lawrence (Big Chill). Their music has been used in fashion shows and several films, the latest being the Oscar nominated Whale Rider.

They are currently hard at work crafting their new album, due for release on October 4th 2004.



www.pitchblack.co.nz

www.myspace.com/pitchblacknz