First
released on 7th September 2000, “Electronomicon” shows Pitch
Black developing their deep dubby sound further by creating long and
involved song structures that traverse a range of sonic experiences.
The resultant album journeys from organic ambience and layered
soundscapes to skanking keyboards, cutting acid riffs and thumping
rhythmic grooves, with dub being the glue that holds it all
together.
“Electronomicon”
reached 28 in the New Zealand album charts and led to a sell-out
30-date tour of New Zealand and Australia. It has since gone on to
become one of the duo’s most popular albums, regularly finding new
fans around the world.
To
celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release, the band dug out the
original audio files and Angus McNaughton has re-mastered them for
the vinyl release. Hamish Macaulay has also adapted the original
artwork, creating a brand new collage for the centerfold out of
pictures taken at the time.
"Electronomicon"
comes out on vinyl only
from
select stores (see the
facebook event for
a list) on Saturday
26th September.
When
I reviewed the original album I wasn’t really feeling it. Not to
say it was this album itself, but dub music in general. I couldn’t
fault the production it was more a case of having listened to dub b-sides of 7” reggae from 1979, I wasn’t finding much in
the genre that sounded fresh and inspiring in recent years. However,
having attend the live show after penning that review and that
impressed me far more.
So
considering the wealth of talent brought into to add their touch to the
tracks and already catching the promo of Pitch Blacks take on ‘The
Gods Must Be Crazy’ (which was my personal favourite from the
album). Alongside the fact I’ve found myself enjoying some new dub
releases of late I decided to give this a go.
With
30 years of experience in producing dub and chill out as well as
historically working alongside Youth, Alex Paterson’s the Orb seems
a natural choice to start proceedings. Fresh off the back of their
popular new album ‘The Abolition of the Royal Familia’ is the
Orb’s Uraniborg Castle in the Sky mix of ‘Four Horsemen’. The
intro sounds very much like the incidental music from the original
Star Trek while the main body is carried along by a tribal beat,
running the gauntlet of sound fx such as telephone dials, vocal
reggae stabs, space launch commentary, vocoder and other samples with
the ease and grace of an Olympic sprinter.
Record
enthusiasts will be pleased to hear this will be released on 12”
vinyl with Pitch Blacks remix on the flipside this autumn.
Following
on is the Alsan Afro Tribal Dub of the title track ‘Astronaut
Alchemist’. San Francisco’s Jef Stott is a multi-instrumentalist
who has studied under some of the masters of Arabic instruments. He
now teaches as well writing, producing and remixing for the likes of
Azam Ali, Stellamara, Natacha Atlas and more and is regarded as one
of the instigators of the global bass scene. The intro here fuses
ethereal vocals and a sample that I’d hazard a guess is David
Childress of Ancient Aliens over the rising volume of dub. Samples
aside the piece is a nice catchy piece of dub with effective rolling
tribal drums.
New
Zealand’s electro-dub pioneers Pitch Black brew up a bass heavy
concoction of samples, reverb and sound fx to tempt the taste buds
with their Hubristic Prayerformance Mix of ‘The Gods Must Be
Crazy’. Whilst simultaneously stamping their individual brand of
dub, that they have honed and crafted since the late nineties both in
the studio and with electric festival appearances and shows
worldwide. As well as having been selected to tantalise the ears of fans
with the first promotional video of this album.
West Coast producer Eartha Harris
weaves a musical tapestry of dub inspired global dance music under
the name Living Light with four albums under her belt, compilation
appearances for Desert Trax, Merkaba Music, Sofa Beats and of course
LSD as well as touring coast to coast and appearing at festivals
across the Americas and Europe. Her remix for Bluetech’s
‘Geometries in Dub’ proved to be extremely popular over the
streaming sites. Here she ups the pace somewhat with her version of
‘Black Crow Dub’ and juxtaposes between tribal flutes and driving
electro dub to brighten up the dance floors.
Athenian
bass player, dub, electro and psychedelic producer Vlastur, has
amassed a healthy following of reggae fans and regularly graces
psychedelic festivals with his live band in mainland Europe. Whilst
representing the Mediterranean on ‘Bass Weapon’ ft N.Yiakoumis,
he firmly places the traditional Jamaican reggae keys at the
forefront of the piece. Paired with occasional horn accompaniment and
short breaks of dub fx. The overall result of his work basks you in
sunshine vibes from start to finish.
Melbourne
based Auckland electronic producers Deep Fried Dub built up a cult
following in their native New Zealand. They have released on Iboga
and Dubmission Records as well as re-mixing the likes of Banco de
Gaia and their local counterparts Pitch Black, International Observer
and the Black Seeds. Whilst their re-mix of Issac Chambers
‘Krytology’ ft Dub Princess has multi-million streams across the
platforms. Their rendition of ‘Ganjaman’ starts with a vocoder
heavy intro that leads into a fusion of reggae bass, horns and
switches the beat between reggae and drum and bass with comparative
ease.
Since
the early cassette releases Banco de Gaia went on to release on
the legendary Planet Dog and Beyond Records Ambient Dub compilations.
Easily accessible in the high street stores and widely received on
the festival scene his brand of cinematic global electronica has
acquired it’s place in musical history. Here he provides an eerie
atmospheric countdown with his version ‘Empress of the Tarot’
that builds into a rocket of sequential loops, before settling down
after the crescendo into ambient dub with harmonious waves.
Seb
Taylor’s Kaya Project has made a name in their fusions of organic
ethnic instruments, exceptional ethereal vocalists and electronica, as
well as many side projects ranging from trance to techno, breaks and
of course dub. Once more an act that appears on festival stages
across the globe. Also tackling ‘Black Crow Dub’ Seb fuses tribal
chill with the deep bass notes of reggae and flurries of psy-breaks.
Balearic
Funk/Chill Out band the Egg are another familiar face of the festival
scene. The Toscodisco re-mix of their single ‘Walking Away’ was
mashed up with the vocal of David Guetta’s ‘Love Don’t Let Me
Go’ reaching No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart. For their part they
went to extra lengths on ‘Good Summer’ and drafted additional
musicians into the studio, reconstructing the original into a
cinematic orchestral number, that provides a laid back chill out
atmosphere and completing the piece with some funky horns.
Lawrence
Harvey otherwise known as Kuba has formed a sound that bridges the
gap between beach bar chill out, psy-chill, dub and eastern
instrumentation. With 8 albums under his belt and another near
completion, alongside festival and gig appearances with a live backing band, he has plenty of admirers. He provides atmospheric
synths peppered with tribal elements alongside flurries of drum and
bass in ‘Empress of the Tarot’ whilst adding slower passages with
touches of glitch.
Once
again representing the west coast of the U.S. The Bombay Dub
Orchestra whose fusion of Indian Classical music and Dub brought them
critical acclaim when they emerged in the late 90’s with
appearances at film festivals across the world. Recording in various
locations across the world utilising local musicians and mastering
from reggae legends Sly and Robbie. Their input with the
international spice station mix of ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy’ on
this release continues in that vein with a soundclash of cinematic
Indian instruments and organ drenched reggae vibes. Offering a vastly
different perspective than Pitch Black.
Hailing
from the Netherlands Uncle Fester on Acid’s ‘No Sense Unfiltered’
his deconstruction and reconstructed version of Pitch Black’s
‘Filtered Senses’ sent a shock wave through the social media
sites and was released by Dubmission Records. He takes the original
production of ‘Bass Weapon’ and applies the brakes, his technique
molding a slow motion squelchy piece of dub.
Mindspring
Music label head honcho Onium is an up and coming young producer of
dub techno, chill out and psy-bass from Dallas, Texas. Also providing
another version of ‘Bass Weapon’ where the results of his
production work, delivers an electronic dub style, that’s not a
million miles away from his peers Pitch Black.
Cape
Town’s Sadhu Sensi draws his influences from a myriad of tempos and
styles from ambient and dub, to techno and trance and more in
between. Fusing elements of organic instruments with the electronic, with album releases on Iboga records and festival appearances, he’s
slowly but surely establishing himself as a contender on the scene.
Providing a deeply atmospheric and spacey take than his predecessors
on the original production of ‘Black Crow Dub’.
Australian
Gus Till has worked with an abundance of musical stars from Manu
Dibango to U2 as well as being part of Michael Hutchinson’s (INXS)
Maxi-Q project. Re-locating to London he was the in-house engineer
for Youth’s Butterfly Records and is probably best known in later
years as one half of Zen Lemonade alongside Supercozi. Although,
appearing under his progressive trance pseudonym BUS on ‘Good
Summer’ his stamp on the piece chugs along in an electro dub
fashion with occasional atmospheric breaks.
Better
known for his psy-trance and progressive productions as M-Theory and
CIMI. Appearing here under his psychedelic techno moniker DM-Theory.
Where he adds a little drive to the original production, layered with
an underlying psychedelic feel on ‘Astronaut Alchemists’. I think
it’s noticeable and I have to give credit here, that this is not a
dance remix where he’s just thrown down a four by four and it
doesn’t quite sit right in parts of the track or the vocals, this
works in it’s own right.
Frankfurt
based Gabriel Le Mar has made a name for himself applying the dub
production techniques to techno-house and on occasion to chill out as
Saafi Brothers. He also lifts the pace of the piece towards a techno
direction on ‘Stars’, applying touches of the iconic 303 acid
sound to breathe new life into the piece.
My
conclusion is overall I liked it and there are plenty of remixes to
choose from on this release. The depth of producers selected range
from those who blend the organic with the electronic to the purely
electronic. Admittedly with some tracks are covered more so than
others. However, that works well to give different options of styles
and finding one that appeals to you.
Following
on from last years ‘All is Lost’, where Animat used extracts from
the 2013 film about a man adrift on a life raft in the Indian Ocean,
composed a new soundtrack. This E.P. delivers five fresh re-mixes
from that album.
First
up on re-mix duties is Professor Chill and his take on ‘Eight Days
Earlier’ where he retains the basic laid back electro-acoustic
sound of the original adding a little more emphasis to the bass and
touches of minimalistic glitch. Following on electro-dub aficionados
Pitch Black tackle ‘Calm after the Storm’ where the original
placed the focus on Mediterranean guitar licks and gentle piano.
Once again this is quite respectful to the original piece adding
accompaniment dub fx and drum rolls.
Next
up is Mark from Animat re-mixing ‘Sea State’ under his Darkly
A.M. psuedonym. Whilst the original was something of a laid back
piece of western fused reggae, here he adds some drive and lifts the
piece into a more acidic and somewhat danceable version. Manchester
trio Marconi Union join the throng with their take on ‘The Virginia
Jean’ and whereas the original placed focus on the electric guitar
licks they take their time building the intro before placing the
emphasis on the piano.
Finally
Sheffield duo Aysup take on what’s probably the least laid back
track from original album with their Neptune’s Crazy Horses mix of
‘Neptune’s Horses’. Like Marconi Union before them they
elongate the intro before the piece comes to life. Drawing on
influences from Kraftwerk, Neu and other Krautrock bands.
To
summarise Darkly A.M. aside these re-mixes take a subtle yet slightly
different approach to the originals, at times injecting a little more
life into them. For me on the whole I prefer the original album,
which was all about a laid back soundtrack with moments of the
dramatic attempting to mirror being alone and at the mercy of the
elements. You on the other hand may feel differently and relish the
additional input.
The third instalment
in the series from New Zealand’s Deep Fried Dub is an all Kiwi
affair. With the guys re-mixing five of their contemporaries in dub.
As NZ has been a hotbed for Reggae releases for some time you can
probably guess some of the appearances already.
First up is their
take on ‘Back to my roots’ by Issac Chambers and Dub Princess a
natural choice after their multi-millon streaming success with
‘Kryptology’. Now I’m not familiar with the original but this
has two major ingredients I’d hope to find with reggae ... a good
vocal and speaker shaking bass. Next on the list is ‘It’s the
future knocking’ by Pitch Black which begins in their electro-dub
fashion, but the style is switched along route into drum and bass.
They then tackle
‘Women will rule the world’ by International Observer which
carries the vocal snippets and horns along nicely with an infectious
groove. While ‘Dub Cell’ by Subset gets dragged back to the 80’s
with arcade style fx and robotic vocoder vocals. Then to see us out
they take on one of New Zealand’s biggest bands with ‘Everybody
Knows’ by the Black Seeds giving the piece a dubbed out house
twist.
To summarise quite
simply a job well done! I liked every track on the album, whether I
knew the original or not.
What has resulted from a combination of sheer
volume of releases and my own listening habits. Where I found myself slowly
gravitating last year to more beat orientated music (I’ve probably brought and
listened to more techno than dub and chill at periods this year) in all honesty I haven’t come across as many stand out albums in 2019.
So you may well view
this list and think why didn’t X or Y make it? On the other hand
there may well be artists or albums you missed that appeal. For a
more in-depth look at this years releases I’d recommend hitting
this link for a whopping 60 album reviews of 2019 ...
On the top of their
game Pitch Black dive into deeper and mellower tracks and deliver
wonderfully at times. However, there is still plenty of the techno and
drum and bass infused dub they have crafted over the decades.
2) Pure Love:
Pure Chill Out Vol 1 (Altar Records)
A collection from
the back catalogue of Argus and friends which also featured six
teasers from the ‘Invisible Sun’ album which followed. Simply
an amazing collection of beautiful music.
3) Reverend John
Chester – The Tibetan Book of Dub (Mutantra)
Initially
pre-released last year under the title ‘Nature Never Lies’ a
selection of spaced out eastern dubs with plenty of robotic vocoder.
The full release including the more up-tempo re-mixes recently saw
the light of day.
4) The Human
Experience – Things Are Changing
A selection of
tracks by Gone Gone Beyond an Americana/folk/electronica collective
put together by the Human Experience. This album was on constant
rotation for months on my daily commute.
5) The Human
Experience – Stillness in Motion
A fantastic follow up later in the year chock full of Amerianca and
world music collaborations.
6) Sven Laux and Daniela Orvin – The Writings
(Dronavrivm)
Daniela's piano enhances Sven’s ambient drones and electronica
into somewhat of a masterpiece in modern classical fusion
7) Hollie
Kenniff – The Gathering Dawn (n5MD)
I’ve been following with interest the teasers pre-cursing this
album and suspect now that Hollie has stepped out of the shadow of
her husband Keith (Helios, Goldmund) and taken the plunge with this
debut album, she will be one to watch out for in her own right.
8) Eguana –
Destiny (Cosmicleaf Records)
A wonderfully textured journey of space ambient music that sets the
mind adrift.
9) Suns of Arqa –
Heart of the Suns :1979 - 2019 (Interchill Records)
If like myself you have only dipped into their vast back catalogue
this is a worthy selection compiled by Andrew Interchill that
features a few elongated ambient versions.
10) 100th
Monkey – Space Dubs and Other Miscellany 1992 – 2017 (Disco Gecko
Recordings)
Another back catalogue collection of an artist I knew relatively
little about. Due to the time frame some of the tracks do sound retro
but I’ve found this album is growing and growing on me.
The
second single to be released from their highly recommended recent
album ‘Third Light’ and features re-mixes from Tor.Ma in Dub and
Robot Riddims.
Now
as you can probably gather from the title of this track it was made
with heavy bass in mind and I was intrigued as to how these re-mixes
would fare. Tor.Ma immediately drops a heavy bass line and eases in
the aspects of the original piece. utilising subtle echoes and fx
that rise and fall as the journey progresses. For me he’s nailed it
I’d even go as far to say I prefer it.
Now
the 10K Skank Remix by South London’s Robot Riddims totally flips
the script. Initially they up the pace and take the piece into a ska
number, then surprisingly apply the brakes in the interludes with
low-frequency dub-step, and it works.
So
if you’re questioning is it worth buying the single and the album
in my humble opinion if your a fan of Pitch Blacks sound then without
a shadow of a doubt.
One of New Zealand’s
hottest exports return with eight tracks of sonic pleasure to push
through your speakers and into your lugholes. Following on from the
recent single and teaser for this album ‘Artificial Intolerance’
and a pre-cursor to their tour.
We get underway with
‘The Silver World’ where a melodic loop leads into a crisp static
atmosphere and dubby chords, this is soon followed by indistinct
vocal snippets and piano notes that add an element of beauty. If I’m
honest this is a tad unexpected and throws me in mind somewhat of
Massive Attack. All I can say is what a start! I’m in no way
disappointed with where they take us next on ‘One Ton Skank’ the
slow paced piano chords in the intro add a darker feel and again the
vocals are indistinct. Then when they drop the looped sequencer, woah
another winner.
By this point we
reach the title track ‘Third Light’ which is atmospheric and
gritty with crisp drum patterns that leads to the stereotypical
reggae chords intertwined with fx and harmonic looped sequences that
just lift and drop the piece in all the appropriate places. This is
followed by the bleepy intro of the aforementioned single ‘Artificial
Intolerance’ which if you haven’t heard by now takes you on a
slow paced atmospheric journey through the light and the dark, that
is until stuttering electronics and drum and bass completes the
excursion in the latter third of the track.
We then move on to
‘Daylight Wasting’ a twitchy piece of electronic dub with lush
waves of warm synths and harmonic tones that lovingly drift into
those dubby echoes. Whilst ‘The Lake Within’ again employs those
piano keys in an almost dubbed out jazz fashion that still manages to
maintain the atmosphere created throughout the album.
There’s a slightly
dark feeling to the intro of ‘A Doubtful Sound’ with a slow
plodding beat and really apt spoken words, before it switches to a
growling dnb fusion and I’m sold. To see us out ‘Did you get the
Message’ re-affirms the piano notes enveloped in atmospheric synths
and field recordings of waves and nature. Just like the opener this
closer is another piece of beauty.
The
first single from the forthcoming album ‘Third Light’ with the
re-mix duties passed to fellow Kiwi’s Akcept and Sub-Set. Mike
offers a little insight into the theme of the single ...
“Numerous
studies have highlighted that the majority of AI coders are Caucasian
and male, and just as many have pointed out the problems that facial
recognition programs have in processing people of colour. Then there
are concerns about the growing quality of deepfakes and the creeping
influence over our viewing and listening habits by recommendation
system algorithms”
“Paddy
and I are far from luddites – we just like to keep an eye on
developments, stay aware of the issues and question the alleged
perfection of technological systems. After all, there are amazing
developments happening in the area of neural networks, for example,
where a teenager, Brittany Wenger, can create a "Global Neural
Network Cloud Service for Breast Cancer” on her laptop in her
bedroom.”
The
original version begins with looped tones that before long are joined
by a darker low-frequency bass note, fused with a more mellow synth
voice and sparse drums. Then the spoken samples are dropped and the
piece takes a darker, grittier tone. Eventually a two step drum and bass beat is dropped, which lifts
the track into it's full potential. One things for sure this track certainly
travels through a few atmospheres along the way, in fact, you could say it's a musical roller coaster of a ride!
First
up on re-mix duties is Akcept who changes tact and serve up a dubbed out
version, that drops the spoken samples. It’s an enjoyable enough
alternative but doesn’t offer the various elements you encounter with the journey of the original.
To
conclude Sub-Set also venture into dub, but it more wobbly and
twisted and retains some of the vocal samples. Again it’s another
enjoyable enough alternative that doesn’t offer the journey of the
original.
This
release is the 3rd single of the recent ‘Filtered
Senses’ album featuring two fresh re-mixes from David Harrow under
his Ochio guise and Tripswitch.
The
original is a slow paced electronic piece of dub with touches of
melodica and packed with bottom end bass that will test your speakers
bass bins.
The
Ochio BigBadMix takes none of that bottom end bass away from the
original. David adds more percussion and melody which initially
enhances the piece nicely. However, I felt a few more switches in the
track could have been applied as it failed to keep my interest
throughout.
Nick
has increasing moved his Tripswitch productions more towards the
progressive house of his dj roots in recent years while still
maintaining his unique stamp. This is the direction he takes with
this re-mix adding a bounce and instantly making it more dance floor
friendly yet keeping plenty of the dub fx. This is definitely the pick of the bunch for
me.
