Pitch Black Announce Arts Festival & Club Shows, Share Video For Artificial Intolerance

Thursday 8 August— With the release of their sixth studio album Third Light just over a month away, the godfathers of New Zealand electronica Pitch Black announce four New Zealand performances in October, before they head off on a European tour. The duo also share the video for the first single from Third Light, ‘Artificial Intolerance’.

Third Light switches between dance floor vibes and brain food for the head, and that’s exactly what fans can expect in the unique fusion of sonic and visual art that can only be experienced at a Pitch Black live show.

Auckland is the first to get the Pitch Black club experience within the intimate environs of Neck of the Woods on 17 October.

The duo will then perform a bespoke work as the centrepiece of the Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival’s free White Night on 19 October, with their video show mapped onto Napier Cathedral.

Following an epic show at San Fran 18 months ago, Pitch Black return to the scene to celebrate the release of Third Light with their Wellington fans on 24 October, for what will be another night to remember. Wellington’s own Ludus will support.

Their final New Zealand show this year will see them play live on the Church Steps in Nelson, for what will be New Zealand’s largest ever live-triggered video-mapping performance on 25 October, with Pitch Black performing Third Light in front of visuals cut up from Hodgson’s Piki Mai and the Piki Mai Remap Project. This is a free event as part of Nelson Arts Festival.

Pitch Black – Third Light Tour
17 October — Neck of the Woods, Auckland — Book at Cosmic Ticketing
19 October — Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival — FREE
24 October — San Fran, Wellington — Book at Cosmic Ticketing
25 October — Nelson Arts Festival — FREE

Tickets to the Auckland and Wellington shows go on sale at 9am today at Cosmic Ticketing

Biography
Pitch Black are Michael Hodgson and 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 1996, they have spent the subsequent 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 thanks to Michael’s cutting edge visuals.

They have toured the world relentlessly, 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.