Eyes A’fire in the Pitch Black Universe

 

Pitch Black is a New Zealand electronica duo from Auckland started in 1996, made up of Mike Hodgson & Paddy Free.

Their 1998 debut album Futureproof climbed to the top of the New Zealand electronic charts because of its sheer greatness, with no major label support, marketing, or advertising.  Futureproof was followed by a remix album, Dub Obscura (1999). 

Here is the Dubmission Records reissue with both releases (here as Black Disc/Futureproof & White Disc/Dub Obscura).

Pitch Black - Futureproof 2xCD reissue, Dubmission Records CDDUBM006, 2008.
all decryption codes in comments

Black Disk -
The Gatherer
Speech
They are Among Us (Pitch Black remix)
Soliton
Melt
The Gatherer (live)
Altered State
Alternate State

White Disk -
Soliton (Live at Heaven Pitch Black remix)
Speech (Epsilon Blue's Freedom of Speech remix)
Melt (Youth remix)
Speech (International Observer remix)
Soliton (Submariner remix)
Speech (Epsilon Blue's Speechless remix)

 

 

 

 

Their second set began with Electronomicon in September 2000. 

 

Pitch Black - Electronomicon, Kog Transmissions KOGCD1018, 2000.

Reptile Room
Electric Earth Pt1
Electric Earth Pt2
Data Diviner
Urbanoia
The 48 Skanks
Unadrumma

 

 

 

 

This was followed the next year by a remix album Electric Earth & Other Elements: Remixes featuring mixes by local Aussie bands International Observer, Epsilon-Blue, Downtown Brown, & others.

Pitch Black - Electric Earth & Other Elements, Kog Transmissions KOG1023, 2001

Electric Earth (video edit)
Lizard Room (Ekto Rhythm mix)
Electric Earth (Part 3 Pylonz remix)
Unadrumma (Downtown Brown Sunshine Sound System remix)
Electric Earth (Part 5 Rotor Plus Smll Hnds rmx)
Soliton (live at Heaven)
The 48 Skanks (Rockwood 48 Jars of Plum Sauce remix)
Electric Earth (Part 6 Cuffy & Leon D remix)
Electric Earth (Part 4 Rook remix)
The 48 Skanks (Rockwood 4 to 7 Odds on the Sheffield Derby mix)

 

 

 

 

Their third album Ape to Angel was released in New Zealand in October 2004.

 

Pitch Black - Ape to Angel, Dubmission Records PB06?, 2004.

Ape to Angel
Freefall
Lost in Translation
Big Trouble Upstairs
Flex
Elements Turn
The Random Smiler (live)
Empty Spaces Missing Units

 

 

 

 

There are two remixes. One was in 2005 named Halfway: Between Ape & Angel,  released on Pitch Black's own label Remote Recordings in New Zealand & Australia.

 

Pitch Black - Halfway: Between Ape & Angel, Remote Recordings remote001, 2005.

Ape to Angel (Bluetech's Evolution mix)
The Random Smiler (OG remix)
Freefall (Fiord remix)
Big Trouble Upstairs (Max & Bluey remix)
Freefall (Friend Electric remix)
Flex (Peak Shift's Non Weight Bearer remix)
Elements Turn (Switch + pZ remix)
Freefall (Ithz remix)
Elements Turn (Agent Alvin remix)
Empty Spaces Missing Units (Module's Happy Machine remix)
Freefall (Alucidnation's Lucid Dream remix)

 

 

 

 

The other was released in 2006 by Dubmission Records as Frequencies Fall in Europe & America. There were slight differences in the track selections & playing order.

 

Pitch Black - Frequencies Fall, Dubmission CDDUBM005, 2006.

Lost in Translation (International Observer meets Horace remix)
Freefall (Friends Electric remix)
Elements Turn (Switch + pZ remix)
Freefall (Funk'n'SloCuts & Minuit remix)
Flex (Son.sine's re-rub)
Big Trouble Upstairs (Hummel's Under the Stairs mix)
Freefall (Ed Page & Isaac Tucker Ithz Derived remix)
The Random Smiler (DJ Flix vs. Red Star remix)
Lost in Translation (Youth's Pirates of Dub mix)
Empty Spaces Missing Units (Module's Happy Machine remix)
Ape to Angel (Bluetech's Evolution mix)
Flex (Peak Shift's Non Weight Bearer mix)
Freefall (Alucidnation's Full Speed Version)

 

 

 

 

Are you seeing a pattern here? This is one of the things that has drawn me to this band time after time, release after release. The originals are fantastic & the remixes elevate that perfection to an even higher level.

Next came Rude Mechanicals  in 2007...

 

Pitch Black - Rude Mechanicals, Remote Recordings remote002, 2007.

South of the Line
Rude Mechanicals featuring KP
Bird Soul
Sonic Colonic (live at Minikami)
Fragile Ladders
Harmonia
1000 Mile Drift featuring Brother J
Transient Transmission (Fig 2)
Please Leave Quietly featuring Tracy Z

 

 

 

 

Followed by Rhythm & Sound & Movement: Rude Mechanicals Remixes in 2009...

 

Pitch Black - Rhythm & Sound & Movement: Rude Mechanical Remixes, 

Dubmission Records CDDUBM013, 2009.

1000 Mile Drift (International Observer remix)
Transient Transmissions (Deep Fried Dub's Battered mix)
Rude Mechanicals (Mistrust's Ambiotik mix)
Bird Soul (Fold vs Horace remix)
Bird Soul (Subtone's Funky, Hard, & Atmospheric Drum 'n' Bass mix)
Sonic Colonic (Patch's Reconstruction mix)
South of the Line (Bluetech's Electroid Excursion)
Harmonia (Neon Stereo's Lost in a Cave mix)
Please Leave Quietly (Johnny Hooves remix)
Bird Soul (Kerretta Ornithomancy mix)
1000 Mile Drift (Simon Flower's Lost at Sea mix)
Harmonia (Rob Crowdy's Light remix)
Fragile Ladders (Groove Yantra's Eclectic Psychedelic Dub)
Please Leave Quietly (Friends Electric remix)

 

 

 

 

These two were in heavy rotation around my place until 2011 when, breaking the pattern, Pitch Black released Rarities + Remixes, a collection of their remixes of other artists plus three original (rarities) tracks.

 

Pitch Black - Rarities & Remixes, Dubmission Records CDDUBM028, 2011.

Te Po (Pitch Black remix) - Hirini Melbourne & Richard Nunns
Kaikoura Dub (original demo) - Pitch Black
House of the Rising Dub (Pitch Black remix) - International Observer
For the Love of It (Pitch Black Version) – Salmonella Dub
The Opaque (Pitch Black remix) - Tom Cosm
Sensimillia (Pitch Black's Sensi Dub) - Katchafire
I'm a Wanderer - Pitch Black
Mirror Beach (Pitch Black's Iron Sands re-rub) - Mirror System
A New Day (Pitch Black remix) - Laya Project
Protect the Grain - Pitch Black
Past Present Future (Pitch Black's Sleep Whisperer mix) - Tiki

 

 

 

 

Pitch Black combines modern electronics, downtempo, & Dub in such a way that the psychedelic experience is aetherial. This is truly spiritual music, as it reaches into the spirit & sends it spiralling into the ionosphere & beyond.

Their fifth pairing of  Filtered Senses in 2016... 

 

Pitch Black - Filtered Senses, Dubmission Records CDDUBM063, 2016.

Filtered Senses
Circuit Bent
Invisible Chatter
Dub Smoke
A Great Silence is Spreading
It’s the Future Knocking
Without the Trees
Pixel Dust

 

 

 

 

& the remix collection Invisible Circuits in 2017... 

 

Pitch Black - Invisible Circuits, Dubmission CDDUBM069, 2017.

It's the Future Knocking (International Observer's No Smoking Dub)
Invisible Chatter (Kaminanda remix)
Circuit Bent (Radioactive Man remix)
Filtered Senses (Beam Up remix)
Pixel Dust (DJ Crises remix)
A Great Silence is Spreading (peak_shift remix)
Without the Trees (Tom Cosm's Twitch Itch remix)
Dub Smoke (Tripswitch remix)
Invisible Chatter (Digital Playground remix)
It's the Future Knocking (Alpha Steppa remix) 

 

 

 

 

Now what led to this mega-post was actually my love of all things On-U combined with my deepest respect for Pitch Black. This is when Uncle Fester came rolling in tripping balls & upping the game another notch.

Uncle Fester on Acid is none other than Pats Dokter from Sittard, Netherlands. Since 2013 he has been the head archivist at On-U Sound. Among many other things he is responsible for African Head Charge’s Churchical Chant of the Iyabinghi which features alternate mixes & dubs from AHC 1990 -1993 that Pats carefully transferred from the original master tapes. On the following Pitch Black (& Mike Hodgson’s Misled Convoy) intrusions, Pats has expanded outward from On-U into a multiverse of other Sounds.

In 2019, Dubmission released the Uncle's deconstruction & re-conception of Pitch Black's album Filtered Senses entitled No Sense Unfiltered. This was the first installment of Uncle Fester's Aural Assault Astronaut series. This series is dedicated to remixing not just a track but whole albums. Pats' mixture of heavy industrialized beats, deep basslines, & multilayered swirling effects add a whole new dimension to a truly unique mix of downtempo, Dub, electronica, ambience, & noise.

 

Pitch Black X Uncle Fester on Acid - No Senses Unfiltered, 

Dubmission Records CDDUBM087, 2019.

No Sense Unfiltered
Invisbly Shattered
Treetop Temple
Passive Clown
Bending Circuitry
Spreading Noises
Stop
Alien Kiwi Sheep Liberation Soundtrack

 

 

 

 

In the 2nd instalment of his Aural Assault Astronaut series, Fester has mutilated Misled Convoy's Sixteen Sunsets album. 

 

 

Misled Convoy is a side project of Michael Hodgson of Pitch Black. Here he is back with Sixteen Sunsets that contains a multitude of "found" sounds Mike gathered as he traveled the world. These sounds were recorded in Iceland, Sweden, Turkey, Italy, Croatia, Spain, Greece, England, & Austria: the cicadas of a Greek island; the automated voice of a Stockholm bus;  rubber on cobblestones at a Roman roundabout; the unusual chug of a narrowboat on a London canal are then drenched in effects & augmented by Hodgson’s signature Dub & Bass, woven together into delicately sophisticated pastiches, layered with beats & melodies. 

 

Misled Convoy - Sixteen Sunsets, Dubmission Records CDDUBM081, 2018.

Blind Light
Sixteen Sunsets
Not this Route
Another Time
I am Full of 40 Thousand Holes
Poles Apart
Trembling of the Trees
The Mind has a Place Full of Strange Paths
Subject to Chance

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile Uncle Fester has turned those sunsets into something that is way beyond the concept of remix & Dub. Brace yourself for a psychedelic frequency feast where nothing is at seems, everything has it's place, there's a place for everything...& believe me, Nothin' sez anything can happen.

Bonus track from Uncle Fester's On-U Sound mate Adrian...

 

Misled Convoy X Uncle Fester on Acid - Twilight 32, Dubmission Records CDDUBM099, 2020.

Intro
Another Place, Another Time, Another Dimension
Changing the Subchance
Visible Darkness
Opposite Poles Interact
Dawnstar 17.3
Simplifying Mindpaths
Drilling Numerous Holes
Trevor's Path

bonus track -
Sixteen Sunsets (Adrian Sherwood's Enter the Void of Sound Delerium mix)

Enjoy the Dubmission,
NØ