Pitch Black + International Observer

Pitch Black:
Pitch Black are award winning multimedia artist Michael Hodgson and Salmonella Dub producer 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 1997, they have spent the last twelve 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 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.

International Observer:
For musician, producer, film-maker and artist Tom Bailey, International Observer is the creative outlet which has allowed him to step outside the 80’s synth-pop paradigm inhabited by his former group, The Thompson Twins. Drawing on his exposure to dancehall culture in South London in the late 70’s, along with later stints working with reggae legends Sly & Robbie and Lee Perry, as International Observer, Tom crafts luscious soundscapes that loop through time and space to etch their own groove on the vast global disc that dub has become in 2009.

Felt, the new album by renowned dub producer International Observer is the third in a series of releases named after senses. Like albums Seen (2002) and Heard (2005) – which reviewers have called ‘lush’, ‘engaging’, and ‘languorous’ – the songs on Felt require superlatives to describe. An altogether deeper excursion into bass than its predecessors, this is music to transport you around the world. From the smoking dancehalls of South London and the crowded streets of India, to the wide open spaces of New Zealand/Aotearoa – each has had an influence on Felt.

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