Pitch Black

Pitch Black are award winning multimedia artist Michael Hodgson and Salmonella Dub producer Paddy Free.

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".

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. Electronomicon followed in August 2000, and led to a sell out 30-date tour of New Zealand and Australia. Their third baby, Ape to Angel, was released in New Zealand on October 4th 2004 to critical acclaim. Their last album, Rude Mechanicals, came out in New Zealand and Australia in August 2007 and the rest of the world two months later.

It is their live show that really makes Pitch Black stand out from the rest of the crowd, both sonically and visually. Visually they are in another dimension due to Mike's cutting edge visuals, which he manipulates at the same time as mixing the sound! Not for nothing have they been hailed as the "Hexstatic of New Zealand" and have been warmly embraced by England's Big Chill - playing the festival 3 times.

They have toured the world relentlessly for the last nine years, 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.