Pitch Black at The Studio, K Rd

By GRAHAM REID

Curiously, Auckland electronica-dance artists Pitch Black - whose new Ape to Angel album is their first in four years, and who have hardly had a full dance card around the clubs lately - seem like they have never been away.

During their long and acclaimed career they have won such a reputation for terrific shows and albums with longevity that, despite their absence, they have remained part of our sonic landscape.

So it was to a comfortably sized but near-capacity crowd they played another blinder in the small hours of Sunday morning and brought out the head-nodders and interpretive dancers for their dub-kissed, wall-shaking set.

Pitch Black - Mike Hodgson and Paddy Free - have always provided striking visuals for their shows. Early up they appropriated typography from old typewriters, computers and road signs (interpolating their own name) and, for the stomping, edgy psychedelics of their thumping Lost in Translation, some Soviet script, before appropriately embarking on some interstellar overdrive (and later intracellular explorations).

Musically - and this was confirmed by motorway and aircraft footage - Pitch Black take complex journeys. If that was Big Trouble Upstairs early on (and they seriously re-jig album tracks) it moved from chest-pounding beats through a night in a jungle with disembodied roars and growls which were truly alarming. All with a relentless beat, of course.

And unlike some electronica acts who seem oblivious to their audience, Pitch Black are also entertainers.

While Hodgson sometimes appears to be trying to solve an especially difficult equation, the gnomic, hyperactive Free bops behind his battery of gear, laughs to himself and with his audience, and encourages the dancers. It puts a human face to a musical genre which often disappears up its own programmatic artifice.

So it was welcome back to Pitch Black who are heading for dates in Europe and the United States. They will be back on the decks here over the New Year.

As always, miss them and you'll regret it.