News and Information

22-Mar-10 : The Three Tuns

09-Mar-10 : Our first live outing in front of a pub audience in more than 10 years. Some nerves, not enough set up time, wiring problems, power supply problems but loud applause and lots of good feedback from the other musicians. Many hadn't heard this style of music before especially the keyboard solos where comparisons to Joe Satriani and Steve Vai were hurled around. Who I am to disagree? :)

Thinking Metal graphic Thinking Metal graphic

Chalkboard at the front of the pub...

Waiting patiently to go on...
Thinking Metal graphic Thinking Metal graphic

Soundchecking...

Post-gig drink - nothing stronger than Diet Coke

25-Jan-10 : Local gigs

We'll be gigging as SkinMechanix early in 2010. Here's a list of the confirmed gigs.

  • 20th February 2010, The Bridge Hotel, Newcastle upon Tyne
  • March 9th 2010, The Three Tuns, Sherrif Hill








More gigs will be announced in the near future.



28-Dec-09 : 2009 was a quiet year / Bear Tracks 4

2009 turned out to be a quiet year for SkinMechanix. The Viral Load project never really got going despite a promising start. Airplay wasn't a problem, with SKinMechanix chalking up almost as much air time as Ion.

The one minor suprise was this link I received from a bemused customer...

... which made me smile. One of the tracks is apparently by SkinMechanix though it's not one of mine and I guess it's someone else attempting to hi-jack the name. Nice try, I thought. Maybe the Bear Gay Scene is a whole new musical direction for us... ?

Okay, I'm only kidding.

Let's hope that 2010 is a more active year for SkinMechanix. I really do need to get some new stuff out there. People will start to think we're dead and gone...

01-Aug-09 : SkInMeChaNIx is now 10 years old

first album artwork

What began as a short lived but prolific collaboration in that far off summer of 1999 has survived against the odds and is still active today, working hard to create cutting edge electronica at a time when most of the UK scene seems content to do nothing more than emulate their heroes from times long gone.

Although most of their efforts are currently directed towards the highly successful Ion project, Skin Mechanix remain active and a new album with a bold, challenging direction are in the pipeline. From what we've heard, it sounds fantastic - the industrial edge of Depeche Mode and Gary Numan fused with the delicate sequencing sensibilities of those perennial Teutonic funsters Tangerine Dream. So not so much a radical departure, more of an evolution.

Explore the site, listen to the tunes and enjoy. You might not like everything you hear. You might not like anything at all. But linger anyway. We might just change your mind.

What the critics said...

"Takes the Berlin School approach by the scruff of the neck and practically reinvents it... delivered with confidence, passion and you really feel that there's a human heart beating away behind all this power and space..." Andy Garibaldi, CDS

"For those of you who miss the glory days of Mark Shreeve and Andy Pickford, this is what you need to be listening to right now. God dammit, this is good stuff!" (Scott Raymond, WKVR "Secret Music")

"High energy techno synths clash with slow, ambient, Eno-esque pianos. Mind-expanding retro-analogue textures - which are as much felt as they are heard - create a mesmerising blend of hypnotic mood music. Believe the hype. This is one special CD." SW, North East Spiritz

30-Apr-09 : New Project, Viral Load

I found these pictures on the web last weekend.

They're by a German artist, Tim Borgman, and they totally blew me away.

They're CGI renderings of a CGI virus, as it might be seen through an electron microscope. Tim's collection of images so closely match exactly what I have in my head for the next SKinMechanix project that I've downloaded as much as I can - they're Public Domain - and the next step is to mail Mr. Borgman to see if he's okay with me integrating them into these web pages and, indeed, the next project.

24-Feb-09 : Site facelift

The site has received a bit of a face lift so that it now boasts the same curvy stylings as the rest of the Thinking Metal site. The content is pretty much the same as before though I've tried to add a few more pictures to areas like the reviews section which were just too text heavy to be useful and actually quite boring to read.

There's no real news of the new album although, rest assured, we are working on it. This is simply because the Ion project has been fantastically successful and so poor old SkinMechanix has had to take something of a back seat for the moment. I'm still working on new material but with 4 Ion gigs scheduled this year, finding time is now difficult.

Later... I've spent the day looking over this site, just tidying up sections and adding extra content where I felt that it needs it and I actually feel that the project needs to be kicked up a gear again. The airplay figures alone show that SkinMechanix still has a lot of miles left in it so, yeah, time to get back on that horse. Maybe not such a good idea to let Ion have all the fun.

02-Jun-08: Stillstream.com

Stillstream.com is a relatively new internet-based radio station broadcasting a mix of ambient and mainstream electronic music. The following tracks from SkinMechanix The Secret Life of Angels have been added to their ambient playlist.

  • SkinMechanix - The Secret Life of Angels - The Great Discovery
  • SkinMechanix - The Secret Life of Angels - Secret Life of Angels
  • SkinMechanix - The Secret Life of Angels - Glow
  • SkinMechanix - The Secret Life of Angels - Elementary
  • SkinMechanix - The Secret Life of Angels - At the Edge of Known Space

26-Jun-08: Secret Life is Number One on Magnatune

SkinMechanix The Secret Life of Angels is currently sitting at number one in the Magnatune download chart.

To say we're thrilled is a bit of an understatement, given that Ion's Future Forever grabbed the top spot last week.

As ever, special thanks go to Jan Hanford and John Buckman of Magnatune for their faith and support, and especially to all the legions of customers who have paid good money for this album.

16-Jun-08: Problems with skinmechanix.co.uk and skinmechanix.com resolved

The problem with the skinmechanix.co.uk and skinmechanix.com domains has been resolved. There was a mistake on the server that prevented visitors from being forwarded to the correct area of the web site. Our service provider is currently looking at how and why this happened. Sorry for any inconvenience.

14-Jun-08: Problems with skinmechanix.co.uk and skinmechanix.com

There is a problem with the skinmechanix.co.uk and skinmechanix.com domains, which are not currently being forwarded to the correct areas of the infectionmusic.com site. We're aware of the problem and have updated the configuration on the main server although these changes will take time to filter through.

19-Apr-08: Robocast Radio

Robocast Radio Logo

The SkinMechanix track Overflight will feature in the forthcoming Robocaster podcast, released today, 19-Apr-08.

I only just found out about this podcast. It's a terrific source for interesting and fairly off-the-wall electronic music from a diverse range of artists, some of which you've heard of, some you haven't. Expect SkinMechanix to feature in future Robocast programmes.

Thanks to Ian Price for all of his help in setting this up.

19-Apr-08: Concert news

SkinMechanix have been invited to play at a Major UK Electronic Music Festival to be held later on this year. More details will be made available as soon as we have confirmed the small print.

03-Feb-08: Airplay

Yes, more airplay.

Pat Murphy over on KXLU continues to champion the SkinMechanix cause on his Alien Air Music show which airs between 9 PM and 11 PM PST around the LA area and via their web cast at http://www.kxlu.com.

Jorge Sergio has been playing both T-Bass and SkinMechanix on his excellent ArticMist radio show for many years now.

Here's the playlist for this weekend's show:

PROGRAM 96 (01st February 2008)

Find the whole playlist here...

11-Jan-08: Airplay

A couple of tracks from the debut album from SkinMechanix, The Secret Life of Angels, will get an airing on Pat Murphy's Alien Air Music show on KXLU 88.9FM in Los Angeles on Sunday night between 9 pm and 11 pm PST. The show will also be webcast from http://www.kxlu.com so you can listen in over the web too. Other featured artists include ARC and Steve Hillage.

03-Dec-07: Oi! Hughes! Where's the new album?

Okay, hand on heart, mea culpa, this is my fault. For one reason and another, I haven't put enough effort into working on the new SkinMechanix album in the last couple of months and not only am I fed up because I had so many ideas buzzing around in my head and none of them have been committed to tape, I am also digusted at myself for not getting off my fat, flabby arse and going out to any gigs in recent months either. FFS, one of those gigs was just 200 meters up the sodding road and I was still sitting working on something or other company related at 10 o'clock at night when I should have been up the pub knocking back a couple of cold ones and watching The Astons strut their stuff. Dedication to the company is all well and good but it's not cool when it borders on something called Workaholism.

Like I said, Mea Culpa. I'll get back on the horse in the next couple of days.

03-Dec-07: The Secret Life of Angels downloads

As we promised, we've continued to expand our download options. The Secret Life of Angels is now available as a downloadable album on both MusicZeit and Magnatune sites.

Both sites offer secure, on-line trading and are managed by personal friends. Hence, they come with the highest possible recommendation. These are not pirate, knock off sites so your credit card details are safe dealing with these guys.

We will continue to offer The Secret Life of Angels as a downloadable album via our own on-line shop for the next couple of weeks only.

09-Nov-07: Fallen Angel on MusicZeit

Fallen Angel is now available on the download site MusicZeit. The music is available in two formats, 256k MP3 and FLAC lossless audio, complete with the original artwork.

Fallen Angel was released as a very limited edition of just 50 copies in December 2005 and sold out within a weekend.

24-Oct-07: Back in the saddle

After what feels like a long summer break - where all of our efforts were focussed on Ion and their debut disc, Future Forever - work has resumed on the new SkinMechanix disc. About half of the new material has been recorded to a demo stage. The rest is still in preparation but a new album should be ready in the New Year.

I've also been playing around with the domain setup so that search engines hunting for the skinmechanix.co.uk domain come here rather than the infectionmusic.com site, which was apparently confusing some people.

I'll be updating this area of the web page in the next couple of days because the current format is not very interesting. Frankly, it needs more pictures of yours truly actually making choonz instead of just talking about them.

30-Jul-07 New label, new future?

SkinMechanix have changed record label and are now signed to Thinking Metal. Infection Music will now concentrate on the design, development and manufacture of professional electronic musical instruments, allowing Thinking Metal to concentrate on developing our artist roster and library/download facilities.

20-Jul-07 New collaborations

I have donated two work-in-progress/backing tracks, "Recover" and "Hysteresis", to The Omega Syndicate, a collective of UK synth musicians, just to see what happens. Hopefully, this will be the first of many collaborative ventures.

03-Jul-07 Irritation

Something has been irritating me of late, a nasty little itch that proved difficult to locate, never mind scratch. After much careful thought and consideration, I figured out that it was the demo disc I put together last week, "From the Tea-rooms of Mars..."

Why? Well, I think it was the title - yet another enigmatic reference with a science fiction theme. In truth, the title, theme and content had little or nothing to do with the references, which were obscure and almost certainly irrelevant. Personally, they began to feel like someone indulging in a spot of intellectual masterbation, someone possible in danger of disappearing up his own arse. Again.

Frankly, I've been bored with the whole science fiction thing since I put together the lecture Science Friction for Newcastle Astronomical Society last year. Since those entries are no longer on-line, I'll explain here that I used the lecture to highlight the impact of bad science fiction on the public's perception of science and scientists and much of the science fiction we see in the cinema or on TV is staggeringly bad from the point of view of the physicist. So why, I ask, did I give the disc a science fiction theme?

I really don't know.

In short, I looked at the cover artwork and realised it was yet another CGI rendering of yet another fantasy location, which had nothing whatsoever to do with the music. Whilst I was attempting to create a couple of atmospheric pieces that would fit into the space music genre, the titles and graphics just looked and felt hollow, empty and meaningless.

Instead, I decided to trust my instinct. I found a couple of alternate images from the net which were a better match for what I had in mind and, after only a few minutes, came up with some new artwork and a new title. Here it is...

species image

The disc is called Species 1 , because it is (hopefully) the first in an on-going series of demos. I'm happy with this. I know it works because the itch has gone and I have learned to always trust my itches. This one has been scratched.

Again, Species 1 is just a work in progress. Some of these tracks will appear on future releases and some won't. I've talked about them here to show that, contrary to popular belief, I'm still working on new material and still experimenting and evolving the sound.

20-Jun-07 "Tea Rooms of Mars" ambient album finally completed!!!

calisto image

I finally finished the ambient/chillout album that has been in the pipeline since March. Actually, I have wanted explore the space music genre for many, many years and, with Future Forever out of the way, I decided that now was the time. I put it together to basically purge some demons and to find a new sound set for the forthcoming SkinMechanix and T-Bass albums. I also wanted to get seriously lost in some abstract blandness following the heavy melodic content in Future Forever. As a listening experience, it hangs together surprisingly well and, to my ears anyway, has a lot more going on than the usual trippy/ambient/chillout album.

The title of the album is... "From the Tea-Rooms of Mars ... to the Mud Baths on Callisto", which is a bit of a mouthful but alludes to my interests in astronomy and physics as well as being somewhat jokey in nature. This is not intended to be a serious album and does not indicate a change in direction for SkinMechanix or T-Bass. Like I said, it's just something I had to get out of my system. In case you were wondering what planet I'm from, the title is also a passing nod to one of my favourite bands from the 80's, Landscape.

The album was put together under the Ion/SkinMechanix banner because it felt more at home there than with any of the T-Bass material.

It's also another significant milestone because this is the third disc of entirely new material that I've put together in less than six months - the other two were Voltage Terrace and Future Forever. Actually, it's the fourth if you count the abandoned Rapture project. Regular visitors and constant T-Bass fans will know that releases from this quarter are not exactly thick on the ground and this is an attempt to remedy the situation.

Alas, this is not going to be a public release - unless a lot of people ask for it, though I am contemplating a free-download option with any purchase from the on-line shop. Let me know if you're interested.

11-Jun-07: Update

I added 2 (yes, 2) new pieces to the SkinMechanix project over the past week. This project is rapidly taking shape and, this time, in a direction which SkinMechanix fans will find much to their liking. Both are fairly slow ambient pieces and currently lean towards the Ion school of electronics but they also retain that critical SkinMechanix feel, which is so important. I'm also working on 3 new tracks which will contain elements of the original SkinMechanix sound although the electronics will be pushed more to the front this time.

It's possible that I might be able to rescue one or two of the tracks from the Rapture set that I played last year in Leeds. Some of you may recall that I wasn't happy with the style or direction of this project and pretty much tossed it on the scrap heap as soon as the gig was over. However, certain elements have found a new home in the latest adventures and so Rapture or at least elements of Rapture may find their way into the public domain.

I also began planning a new SkinMechanix gig over the weekend. This was mainly due to the activities of yet another local organiser, who let us down because he "couldn't find any other bands to put on with us...", which sounds like another lazy cop-out to me. Anyway, the plans are moving forward. The gig won't happen until later in the year, which will give me enough time to come up with some new material as well as incorporate some of the older tracks into the set.

I heard from Sequences Magazine last week and apparently Carl Jenkinson's unpublished review of Fallen Angel, printed below, will appear in the magazine. With luck, Fallen Angel will have been re-mastered and re-released by then. We have a vague idea that this will be a double-album with the first disc dedicated to studio tracks and the second dedicated to live tracks. It's early days but we'll see what happens.

27-Apr-07: Update

Now that the Ion disc has finally been released into the wild, I spent a little time reviewing where we are with the Skin Mechanix project.

Firstly, I was delighted to discover two pieces left over from the original SkinMechanix sessions way back in 1999. I'd forgotten we had ever recorded these and listening to them again brought back some astonishing memories. They were the best of times, and the worst of times, to paraphrase Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities. Wow. How time flies, eh? But this is old news. If you want to read more then try combing the archives. Most of them are still on line.

Anyway, back to these two choonz. The first doesn't really have much structure to it at all but will work fine as an ambient bridge. Lots of delicate drones and whispy filter sweeps. The second is more intriguing. It's mid-tempo, with a good solid kick, a deep, throbbing bass line and some nice tight rhythms but, apart from the bass line, no melodic structure at all. It's begging for something - just not sure what at this moment.

We're still a long way from a release but it is progress.

19-Mar-07: An unpublished review

There hasn't been much news from the SkinMechanix camp of late. I decided to reduce the profile of the band after the October gig, mainly because I was busy with the Ion project and also because I wasn't happy with the direction that SkinMechanix was taking. I felt that much of the new material had become too drifty and too ambient and a few people, one of them being Jules, said that I looked "unhappy and uncomfortable" on stage, as if I wasn't enjoying myself and, frankly, I have to admit that they were perfectly right. I wasn't happy, comfortable or enjoying myself... except when I was joined on stage by Jules and Norman. I miss the days when I was in a band.

Those sentiments were further echoed in an unpublished review I was sent last week. This review should have gone into the forthcoming Sequences magazine but was pulled possibly because the reviewer, Carl Jenkinson, was a little late with the submission and possibly because Fallen Angel is no longer available.

Here's the review:

"This second Skin Mechanix album was released late in 2005 as a limited edition of 50 copies. Dave Hughes describes the music herein as "a rough guide only" which will "hopefully point the way towards the next full-length album". Some of these 8 tracks were only a week old when the disc was released, others date from years previous & a good few were recorded live during one of Dave's Awakenings gigs. Happily, Dave doesn't opt for the overdone teutonic lark, although there are a few old school touches here & there, most noticeably the sequences that form the backbone of the absorbing "A Chromium Dark" & the lively "The Journey Home" which definately have a touch of early 80s TD with some excellent abstract backgrounds to boot. In both cases, however, the imaginative rhythmic colouring gives the music a more modern sheen, putting the album in roughly the same ballpark as Mind-Flux. This is equally true of the lively "Dimension Jump" which should also appeal to fans of Synthetik & the like although a greater melodic quotient would have made this an even better piece as it does rely on the effects a little too much, unlike "Waving At Mono", where the more involved melodic work makes all the difference. TBass fans should likewise enjoy the more melodic feel of "Before We Forget", particularly the fine soloing & majestic rhythms that grace the soaring mid-section while the closing "America" could almost be an out-take from the days of The Infection Of Time (I wonder if is this one of the older tracks?), resurrecting the old TB lead voices & the harder rhythms of yesteryear & although the effect here is pleasant rather than spectacular it's not a bad closing shot. As 'rough guides' go, this is very promising indeed & if Dave can develop these tracks still further then he could well produce some mighty fine stuff so watch this space!"

So, there's a clear bias here away from the Teutonic noodlings and towards the old thrash and burn style of music we used to produce. Time to drag out the skin-tight spandex underwear again, I think.

23-Jan-07: Voltage Terrace

voltage terrace image

The new demo disc, Voltage Terrace, seems to be generating some excellent feedback, which is very encouraging. The ambient, semi-improvised approach does seem to be going down well, even amongst the hard=core fans who were perhaps expecting another thrash-a-thon.

But then Voltage Terrace isn't really a Skin-Mechanix album. It's a curious hybrid between T-Bass and SkinMechanix and represents a deliberate attempt to get away from the sonic fireworks that people have come to semi-expect from this camp.

Frankly, a lot of pleasure came from just feeling free to listen to details within the simplest of drone tracks, or playing around with rhythms and beats that were not my own, or adding layer upon layer just to see what would happen next. It's an approach I enjoyed and it's an experiment I'm likely to continue in the future.

Though this disc won't be a formal release, I may consider releasing a limited number of copies, maybe 10 or so, just to get something out there and to get a feeling for where to go next. If you want a copy, get in touch via the Contact form and I'll add your name to the list. When we have enough names for a small-scale release then we'll let you know what to do next. Cost? Small, probably less than a fiver, including postage. No dealers please. This is just for fans.

12-Jan-07: Rapture

After a long period of reflection over the Christmas Break I decided that we won't be releasing the Rapture set recorded at the Awakenings event back in October 2006. Simply put, I don't feel that the material is good enough for a full release, the ideas feel under-developed and the music seems unloved, for want of a better word, even by their creator.

Probably better to stick them back in the cooking pot for a while longer, until they feel like they're ready.