Product Description

Pitch Black return with their fourth and possibly their best album so far. Rude Mechanicals embraces all that is good about dance music and electronica, spiced up by the trademark Pitch Black blend of echoes, delays and deep, fat basslines. The band have always been avowed fans of music in general (as opposed to any one style in particular), and it certainly shows here: the album kicks off with the lush South of the Line before dubbing it up, year 3000 style, with 1000 Mile Drift. Sonic Colonic kicks the tempo up a gear as the only real four-to-the-floor stomper on the album. Bird Soul reminds one that Paddy Free spent years producing Salmonella Dub, as it takes their guitar driven drum and bass style and wraps it in an ambient dub envelope. Harmonia is an exquisite piece of electronica, reminiscent of Speedy J or Black Dog. It is followed by Rude Mechanicals, which marks a departure from the norm for the boys, featuring rapper KP from the infamous Sunshine Soundsystem, who waxes lyrical about the destruction being wrought on the planet by our environmental ignorance and general greed. Fragile Ladders provides some much needed breathing space before Please Leave Quietly destroys what is left of the bass speakers! Rude Mechanicals is a genre busting excursion in sound, heaving with warm basslines and complex rhythms, topped up by haunting melodies and, for a change, cutting social commentary. To adapt a previous quote about them, this album is like Underworld meets King Tubby, in all the best ways possible..

Review

The first Pitch Black album, Futureproof, was a landmark in 1998, a confluence of various techno strands subjected to Michael Hodgson's spacious dub treatments. Even on an international scale it was something unique, and really deserved to be heard by a much larger audience. Hodgson and Paddy Free's subsequent work hasn't quite stacked up to that, more than likely because the rest of the world caught up to them, but regardless it's an impressive body of work. South Of The Line, the opener on Rude Mechanicals, could easily be from Futureproof, displaying the same kind of languid synthetic dub bass line and atmospheric effects exploitation that was constructed around it. Fortunately the title track evaporates the feeling that it's just gonna be more of the same. With KP from Sunshine Sound System vocalising it takes those tried and true motifs into a more accessible zone. From there on it's clear Pitch Black have expanded their palette without abandoning what made them so good in the first place. There's some more upbeat material here, some tracks you wouldn't immediately identify as Pitch Black, and some that you would. Recorded over several sessions in diverse locations, Rude Mechanicals re-emphasises Pitch Black's importance. -- Gavin Bertram - Real Groove Magazine

From the Artist

Rude Mechanicals sees us casting our net even wider than previous outings Futureproof, Electronomicon and Ape to Angel.

Ranging from periods of atmospheric ambience to skankin' dub, through to stomping drum n bass, the album also features vocal contributions from KP, Brother J, and Lisa Z.

KP, of Sunshine Sound System fame, lays down an ecologically-themed rhyme and uplifting chorus on the title track. "All the guys in the Sunshine Sound System have been our close friends for years" say Paddy. "We toured around Europe with them in 2002, and shared many adventures, including the van breaking down in the middle of nowhere on the border between France and Germany." "A night in the company of the Sunshine Sound System is a guarantee of a vibey, uplifting time - and KP brings that to this track" says Mike.

Paddy's former bandmate from mid-90s electronica band Mesh, Brother J, contributes a typically enigmatic vocal on rootsy 4/4 stomper 1000 Mile Drift, while Auckland-based jazz vocalist Tracy Z's ethereal vocals float through the skittery beats and ambient wash of album closer Please Leave Quietly. "We thought this would be a good track to be played at the end of a Drum n Bass night, hence the title" says Mike. "Its a track that's both heavy and ambient at the same time. You could definitely drop it as the final let-go after a night of hard out Drum n Bass."

About the Artist

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".

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. Both albums spawned remix projects, featuring mixes by local luminaries such as International Observer, Epsilon Blue and Downtown Brown.

Their third baby, Ape to Angel, was released in New Zealand on October 4th 2004 to critical acclaim. The Ape tour was the biggest yet, with 42 shows across the world, including their debut performances in America. The album was then released in Europe through Dubmission in July 2005 and in America on Waveform in August 2005, with a Japanese release, with a bonus remix disc, in May 2006.

Their last album, Rude Mechanicals, came out in New Zealand and Australia in August 2007 and the rest of the world two months later. Possibly their most accessible album to date, it ranges from downtempo dubs and ambient soundscapes to trancefloor grooves and drum and bass, and was lauded by veritable music institution Q Magazine as "the sound of the future"!

Remixes of this album were released in May 2009, with versions by Bluetech, International Observer, Patch (Heavyweight Dub Champion) and many more.

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.

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, computer games, TV shows such as True Blood and CSI plus many films, including the Oscar nominated Whale Rider.

• Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.97 x 5.63 x 0.36 inches; 3 ounces
• Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Dubmission
• Original Release Date ‏ : ‎ 2009
• Date First Available ‏ : ‎ December 5, 2007
• Label ‏ : ‎ Dubmission
• Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1