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Rarities & Remixes

by Pitch Black

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Rarities & Remixes via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Streaming + Download

    Download the 13-track album in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

    Package comes with front, back and inside artwork, plus "Delf", a short animation made in 1997 which features music by Pitch Black.
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about

Rarities & Remixes – the latest album from Auckland’s Pitch Black – is a package of rare tracks and lovingly crafted remixes of other artists’ music, chosen by Paddy Free and Mike Hodgson to represent their fifteen year reign as Aotearoa’s favourite electronica act.

Known globally for their stomping, genre defying live sets, Rarities & Remixes showcases Pitch Black’s mellower side, the one that also makes them favourites in the living room. The album begins with the call of the kōauau (Māori flute), the intro to a dancefloor friendly, but respectful reworking of the Richard Nunns and Hirini Melbourne original, ‘Te Po’ and ends with an equally haunting version of Tiki’s ‘Past Present Future’. Bookended by these distinctively local soundscapes, Rarities & Remixes represents the past, present and future of the Pitch Black partnership.

Included in the remixes are tracks by fellow Aotearoa/NZ dub trailblazers International Observer (‘House of the Rising Dub’) and Salmonella Dub (‘For the Love of It’), along with ‘The Opaque’ by independent music producer Tom Cosm, and ‘Sensimillia’ by reggae legends Katchafire – all fed through the PB warping machine. Representing from further a field is ‘Mirror Beach’ by Mirror System (the ambient project of Britain’s System 7), and ‘A New Day’, a remix of a Sri Lankan track that Pitch Black remixed for the Laya Project, a collaboration of regional folk musicians affected by the 2004 tsunami.

For Mike, the remix process is a chance to share creativity: “We love getting other artists to remix our tunes and we really enjoy remixing others’ music. It gives us a chance to play with different types of sounds and composing techniques. I love getting the parts of these songs and creating a folder of sounds in response to the track. This quite often gives us the sound field and sonic vibe for the remix.”

Whilst all of Pitch Black’s four studio albums have been followed by a compilation of versions by local and international artists, this is the first to showcase their own remixing output, and Mike and Paddy enjoyed the process of going back over all the old dats.

“From 1996 to 2011 we have had many chances to remix other artists’ songs, and these have been released on a variety of albums and compilations around the world – this Pitch Black release gives us a chance to put them all in one place. It contains tracks from the very beginning of us working together right up to a track finished earlier this year,” says Paddy.

Included on the album are three Pitch Black originals that were either never released or were on compilations or short limited runs. Purists will love the inclusion of 1996’s ‘I’m a Wanderer’, the first track the pair worked on together.

“I had a long drums and effects jam that I wanted to turn into a song and Paddy was keen to work together so we took this long evolving track and chopped it up into a structure and then added Paddy’s vibe to it,” remembers Mike. “Pitch Black was born.”

‘I’m a Wanderer’ showcases the industrial beginnings of what would become the Pitch Black sound – a dynamic balancing act between heavily sculpted basslines and choppy melody that has been acknowledged by many as an evocative soundtrack to the Aotearoa landscape. In contrast, the pastoral ‘Protect the Grain’, a windborne ambient track released on the limited edition EP Flex around the time of widespread anti-GE demonstrations, represents Pitch Black at their gentlest.

Also included is ‘Kaikoura Dub’, a previously unreleased track from which a snippet was used on Whalerider to accompany Paikea’s journey away from her village, during the scene when she heard the whales calling her home.

Mike explains how the collaboration came about: “In 2000 I bumped into Niki Caro and she asked if we had any tunes lying around that she could use for Whalerider. We had just come back from a session in Kaikoura where we had jammed a new track into a long 23min mix. I put that on CD for her and she ended up choosing a sliver for the film. We subsequently used the bones of this track for the tune ‘Elements Turn’ on Ape to Angel but it’s great to find the original two track recording and release it.”

Pitch Black have always been more than a dance act, but on Rarities & Remixes they demonstrate the full reach of the musical territory they love to explore.

credits

released June 13, 2011

Album Credits

1. Te Po (Pitch Black Remix)
Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns
2006
First released on "Te Whaiao: Te Ku Te Whe Remixed"
Original written by Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns
Published by Rattle Records
Kindly licensed from Rattle Records
rattlerecords.net

2. Kaikoura Dub (Original Demo)
Pitch Black
2002
Unreleased track that was featured in the film "Whale Rider"
Written and produced by Paddy Free and Michael Hodgson
Published by Native Tongue Music Publishing
whaleriderthemovie.co.nz

3. House Of The Rising Dub (Pitch Black Remix)
International Observer
2009
Original track written and produced by Tom Bailey
Published by Copyright Control/Native Tongue Music Publishing
Kindly licensed from Dubmission Records
facebook.com/internationalobserver

4. For The Love Of It (Pitch Black Version)
Salmonella Dub
1999
Original track written by Salmonella Dub
Published by Mushroom Music Publishing
Kindly licensed from Salmonella Dub
salmonelladub.com

5. The Opaque (Pitch Black Remix)
Tom Cosm
2011
Original track written and produced by Tom Cosm
Published by Copyright Control
cosm.co.nz

6. Sensimillia (Pitch Black's Sensi Dub)
Katchafire
2006
First released on "Homegrown Dub" (Mai Music)
Orginal track written by Logan Bell, Jordan Bell, Jaimey Ferguson, Ara Adams-Tamatea and T Hohepa
Published by Local Music/Mushroom Music
Kindly licensed from Local Music
katchafire.co.nz

7. I'm a Wanderer
Pitch Black
1997
This is the first track we wrote together.
Originally released on the Curious Records compilation "On the beat'n'track"
Written and produced by Paddy Free and Michael Hodgson
Published by Native Tongue Music Publishing

8. Mirror Beach (Pitch Black's Iron Sands Re-rub)
Mirror System
2006
Original written and produced by Steve Hillage, Miquette Giraudy and Mark Neal
Published by Stage Three Music/Copyright Control.
Kindly used by permission of Mirror System / A-Wave Records.
a-wave.com

9. A New Day (Pitch Black Remix)
Laya Project
2010
First released on "A New Day - Laya Project Remixed" (EarthSync)
Original written by Patric Sebag + Yotam Agam
Published by EarthSync
Kindly licensed from EarthSync
layaproject.com

10. Protect the Grain
Pitch Black
2003
First released on the limited edition "Flex" EP, created for our European excursion of 2003
Written and produced by Paddy Free and Michael Hodgson
Published by Native Tongue Music Publishing

11. Past Present Future (Pitch Black's Sleep Whisperer Remix)
Tiki
2009
First released on "Flux" (TikiDub)
Original written by Tiki and Inuwai Taanetinorau
Published by Tikidub Production
Kindly licensed from Tikidub Productions
tikidub.com

12. Disarray (Pitch Black's +13db@50Hz Remix)
Across Digital
2011
Original written by Rogerio Romao and Marcus Vandell
acrossdigital.com

13. For Your Digitalize Only ( Pitch Black Remix )
Zen Lemonade
2009
Original Written by Gus Till and Supercozi ( a.k.a Cozi Till Yukimi Yonezawa )
Published by Electronic Soundscapes
Kindly licensed from Electronic Soundscapes
myspace.com/zenlemonade

Delf Movie
1997
Written and directed by James Cunningham
Produced by Paul Swadel
Music by Pitch Black
nzfilm.co.nz

Artwork by Nick Caro dub_badger@yahoo.co.uk
Mastering by Angus McNaughton @ Auralux Mastering

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