Exploratory beats go bush

By REBECCA BARRY

Think of a Pitch Black gig and you'll probably imagine a setting much like the one they're playing tonight - lush, green bush, two blokes attacking their equipment like limbs of the same body, and hundreds of pumped people swaying to ambient, dub-fused electronica.

You probably wouldn't think of the theme music to You and Me Parent Time.

But production duo Paddy Free and Mike Hodgson call this their "portfolio of dodgy musical occupations" - writing music for new mums is just part of it.

Free, you see, has been busy composing music for TV. He also produced the last two Salmonella Dub albums.

Hodgson has been focusing on the corporate music scene, designing sound for websites. He also played VJ (video jockey) at a Louis Vuitton party in New York.

And long before the world went Keisha-mad, the duo gave Whale Rider director Niki Caro some demos, asking her to get in touch if she liked anything for the film.

To their amusement, she chose part of a 45-minute jamming session they'd forgotten was there.

Now, Free and Hodgson are holed up at the freshly painted Kog studios, surrounded by their starship enterprise of equipment. Like a band in rehearsal, this is where they've spent the past two weeks preparing for the weekend's music and arts festival Splore.

"I still prefer live bands to a DJ experience," says Free, whose on-stage vigour is reminiscent of an improv rock musician. "We're not DJs. In fact I often wonder, do people actually know what we're doing up there?"

Putting together a jigsaw puzzle, is how Hodgson explains their deep, exploratory multimedia shows, which explore the various strains of techno, dub and ambient electro.

For the past eight years Pitch Black have been grabbing audio and visual snippets and throwing them all together on stage, the sounds of the keyboard triggering the freaky visuals on the screen behind them.

They've released three sprawling albums - Futureproof, Electronomicon, Electric Earth and Other Elements - and are working towards a new one they hope to release in September.

"We generally felt need to make faster, more thumping tracks. They're more energetic, more break-beaty," says Free.

Part of that tougher new sound was inspired by Hodgson's two-year stint in London with his son and partner, who wanted to take advantage of the end of the IT boom. During the northern summer Free would join him and they would tour Europe, in between gigs back home.

Now Hodgson is based in Wellington and spends about half his time visiting Auckland to collaborate with Free in Piha.

"We had dreams of working in different countries," says Hodgson. "All the music I ever listened to came out of England: Industrial, Psychic TV, Adrian Sherwood. The Brits do beautiful beats, and they're really good at mixing up noise and dub ...

"But I found England really tough. It's much easier to make music in the same room."

That's not surprising considering their history together.

"We have our ups and downs," says Free. "We know how to wind each other up. But we're about as close as two males can get in a platonic relationship."

Performance

* Who: Pitch Black

* Where and when: Splore, Wharau Regional park, Franklin, tonight, 9-10.30