Pitch Black turn Twenty One and open the Sonic Portal
Twenty-one years ago Mike Hodgson and Paddy Free, AKA Pitch Black, first launched their lush low-end on an appreciative outdoor Aotearoan audience (at The Gathering, naturally).
Since then, Paddy’s instantly recognisable spikey-haired silhouette and Mike’s mesmerising multi-media visuals have reverberated festivals and clubs around the world.
One critic has described them as “like Orbital meets King Tubby, or Rhythm and Sound in Technicolor”. Their sound ranges 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.
Their parallel careers are fascinating too: Paddy is currently producing albums by Moana & the Tribe and Toni Huata, and Mike, now based in London, is working on complex visual projects, often alongside his son Sam, as well as making music as Misled Convoy.
Occasionally the two slam back together as Pitch Black and that’s exactly what they’re doing this March for a quick four date tour of NZ with a bunch of their buddies. The shows kick off in Auckland on 3 March alongside International Observer and the high-priest of bass, FreQ Nasty, before heading south for dates in Nelson, Wellington and Christchurch.
Have a listen to their new remix of electronica legend Radioactive Man – the Magnetospheric Multiscale Remix of Sonic Portal due for release 2 March 2018.
FaceBook Tour info : https://www.facebook.com/pg/pitchblacknz/events/
