Thinking Metal: News
07-Nov-08: Ghosts in the Machine Festival
We're delight to confirm that we'll be playing at the Ghosts in the Machine festival in Swindon on June 13th 2009.
28-Oct-08: What do you think?
I've been having an interesting discussion with respect to selling stuff and our current sales policy with Susan Baird of Dreamaiden. The policy we apply (as best we can) is that this site is, first and foremost, an information site. We're not heavily into sales and selling stuff. I got bored with visiting sites that seem to do little more than ply the wares of their various owners, often applying a sales pitch that walks a fine line between a Gordon Gecko-style hard sell policy and desparation.
So, we made a concious decision to pull back from the hard sell and concentrate on providing an information service. We felt that others could do a better job of selling than we can. Also, we wanted to make sure that there was plenty of information about our various activities so that visitors have a good idea what we're doing.
What's happened? Well, visitor numbers are certainly up on this time last year though they're hardly spectacular. However, sales from our on-line shop have bombed. This could be because it's easier to buy from sites like Magnatune and iTunes though what we earn from those sites certainly doesn't mean we'll be able to retire to the Bahamas any time soon.
What we'd like to know is... What do you think? Does this site do a decent job? Could it be improved? Will you come back later? Tell us, we'd like to hear what you think. If we think you're talking sense, we'll do what we can to put your ideas online and give you a credit.
Get in touch via the Contact form above.
20-Oct-08: T-Bass: The End
Following the success of our recent Ion concert and the the amount of airplay Ion is currently receiving, we've decided to end the T-Bass project completely. Further information is available under the T-Bass banner.
01-Oct-08: Updated events list
I've updated the events log for the forthcoming Dundee Live gig and added some vague details about the Generations event. There have been some developments in this area in recent weeks though they're in the early stages but it's possible that we could end up with some major backing and hence major publicity.
27-Sep-08: Airplay Log IV
We did it!! 101 airplays this year!!!!
I'll be writing a special letter of thanks in the next couple of days to all of those who supported us by playing the choonz.
21-Sep-08: Airplay Log III
There have been further updates to the airplay log. Essentially, we're rapidly approaching the magic 100 plays, which will be a major landmark for us. I've not actually been pushing the airplay a great deal in recent months because I was concerned that I was pushing too hard and that people would get sick of hearing us. I guess I was wrong because there's been a strong, steady, consistent growth in plays in that time, which is very, very encouraging.
Rehearsals for the Awakenings gig next week are in full swing. Jules will be joining me on stage again despite a fairly nasty injury to her right arm. I'm looking forward to the adventure enormously.
21-Aug-08: Airplay Log II
I've updated the airplay log again, this time with even more Magnatune podcasts and an equally impressive collection from StillStream.com. Plus, there are some further licensing details to add, which I'll sort out later. All of this adds up to a very impressive 8 months.
My goal at the start of 2008 was to see if we could push through 30 tracks played on air, either in a pod cast, streaming radio or on direct-to-air radio. This seemed pretty reasonable at the time. I thought we could do it, if we pushed hard. I didn't expect that we'd more than double that figure in less than 8 months. Phew.
I'd like to offer special thanks to all those DJ's who have helped and supported us this year.
27-Jul-08: Airplay Log
I just updated the airplay log with a whole bunch of Magnatune podcasts and, well, the log is finally starting to look more than a little impressive. I've been told that there are a few more entries to include for July - StillStream.com played quite a few tracks last weekend - and these latest additions will almost certainly take the tally this year to over 80 tracks. That's more airplay than I think we've ever had before.
Now, just 80 plays might seem pretty pathetic to you and perhaps it is when compared to some of the major players. However, if you're able to cast your mind back to where we were this time last year then you might just conclude that something, somewhere, is starting to come together.
Of course, this list doesn't include all of the stations that we don't know about yet and I'm optomistic that there are fair number of those because just a few casual minutes spent ego-googling turns up new additions to the log every time. Hence, I'm pretty sure that the word is getting out.
Which begs the next question - Where to now?
That's the next chapter. Watch this space.
10-Jul-08: Facelift/Firefox bug
Minor changes to the HTML code on the T-Bass and SkinMechanix pages because they were not displaying properly in Firefox. Other browsers (IE, Safari) didn't seem affected but Firefox would leave borders in the wrong place. Hi ho, hi ho...
02-Jul-08: Free Music / Work-in-Progress
A short piece, released simply to say "Thank you!" to the many folk who have supported us over the last couple of months! The number of people downloading the Ion album Future Forever has been very, very encouraging indeed.
The title of this piece gives a small clue to the inspiration... :)
Click here to listen to Annoying The Neighbours.
Enjoy.
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.
15-Jun-08: Future Forever is Number One on Magnatune
Ion's Future Forever is currently sitting at number one in the Magnatune download chart.
Needless to say, we're thrilled.
Special thanks go to Jan Hanford and John Buckman of Magnatune for their faith and support.
02-Jun-08: Radio Interviews
An edited version of Saturday's interview with Terry Hawke is available here.
30-May-08: Radio Interviews and Podcasts
Some news on up-coming radio interviews and podcasts.
Terry Hawke Interview
Nearly forgot this one. David and Jules will be studio guests on the Terry Hawke Chill Out Sessions tomorrow, 31st May 2008, from 2200 hours onwards. Terry will be playing a couple of rare and unreleased tracks by Ion and SKinMechanix as well as talking about recent developments and some very special news about an upcoming gig.
Also featured on the show is an interview with Susan Baird of Dreamaiden. We've known Susan for about a year now and she's a wonderfully talented musician whose work has been seriously under-rated so far. Strangely, we've never actually spoken in person and so this will be a weird kind of first conversation, over the air and with a couple of thousand listeners tuned in!!!
To listen to thow show, follow the Listen Online link from the Harborough FM web site.
Robocaster Prog 22
Ian Price of Robocast Radio mailed to let us know that Ion's Evensong is the first track up on their latest podcast, Prog 22. Click the graphic below to have a listen...
22-May-08: Site Updates III
Corrected some minor fluffy stuff. No real news.
- Corrected the style sheets so that the boxes all line up properly and the overall appearance is a bit sharper.
- Corrected one or two details in the discography and Buy Stuff pages.
- Updated the Events page to reflect the change of date for the Dundee Live gig.
17-May-08: Site Updates II
Added a lot of minor corrections, mostly spelling and grammar, and some corrections to the flow and organisation of the site so that pages link up and return properly. Thanks to Jules for wading through the mass of new material.
10-May-08: Site Updates
Recent visitors may have noticed some changes to the front page.
Yes, we've been busy. We've greately extended and enhanced the content on this web site over the past few weeks to provide a better experience for all of our visitors, new and old.
First and foremost, the news section has been greatly extended because, well, that's what you've asked for. You want to know more about what we're doing and what we have to say. For instance, the new albums from T-Bass and SkiNmechanix are long overdue. So what's holding them up? Will there be another Ion album? When and where is the next gig?
Secondly, we've added several new sections as well as restored several old favourites. The new introductions include The Gig Guide, which is an attempt to review all of the gigs over the years from our perspective. As you might expect, it's radically different from the often biased and politcally motivated opinions you might read elsewhere. However, don't imagine that this is a whitewash of events. We've tried to be honest, often brutally honest, when reviewing our past glories as well as our occasional failings.
Another new arrival is the Radio Play section, which attempts to list and promote all of the radio stations who have helped and supported us over the years. This is intended to help and support new musicians working in this field because nothing feels as good as hearing your own work on the radio and finding an outlet that will listen to your stuff is never easy. Hence, we've included dates and time, the tracks played and the contact details for the various DJ's at the relevant stations.
We've also restored the Discography, which is now as up-to-date as possible and, although there are still gaps, it's improving constantly. For various reasons, much of our archive is incomplete and we need help to develop the resources. If you have any pictures or recordings of our concerts then please get in touch. We'd love to hear from you. For instance, one of our fans mailed us to ask if we'd ever heard of the German Schwindungen Radio auf CD series of discs in which we appear to feature rather a lot. This was completely new to me and a very pleasant surprise.
Then, of course, there's the re-appearance of Dave's Blog, which many punters had thought long gone but which has, in fact, been running continuously for more than a year now.
Finally, there's a new Downloads section, featuring loads of free choonz and lots of high resolution images sized specifically in wallpaper format for your PC desktop. Cool, huh?
Why are we doing this?
Well, it's simple. There's been a huge resurgence in interest in our music in the last couple of months. For instance, I checked the Magnatune Top Ten this morning and was astonished to find that Ion's Future Forever is back in the charts again, this time at number 6.
More so, the amount of airplay we've received since Christmas 2007 has been astonishing and this, in part, has to be the main reason that fans are checking us out.
We feel that the tide is once again turning in favour of music that has soul, music that has passion, energy and drive, music that rocks your head and your heart in equal measure. Time and time again, we read reviews of our discs that beg and plead for the scene to make a wholesale return to a style of music that actually does something and actually says something. Music should never, ever be about the amount of equipment you have or a competition to see who can produce the weirdest noise or who can sound closest to a band that moved on to pastures new 30 years ago.
We're doing this because there's a strong trend in the media to do away with the minority interest radio stations who play our style of music and these stations need the help and support of listeners and musicians alike if they're to avoid total extinction. But there's also a new breed of broadcaster, the Podcaster, the internet equivalent of the college radio station, and these guys need your help and support just as much.
We're putting the effort into this site in the hope that you'll support us, talk about us, listen to us and therefore help keep this adventure running a little bit longer. First and foremost, this site isn't about earning money. It's about promoting the music, about promoting an idea that music shouldn't be about equipment or bleepy noises. It's about music that moves you into a better state of mind, music that lifts and enriches, music that, for want of a better term, kicks ass. More than anything, it's about a style of music that looks forward to a brave new world instead of endlessly wallowing in the past.
What you won't find here is an endless list of adverts for downloadable albums and home made CDr's. Yes, you can buy our albums through this web site and you can down load them from any number of download sites like Magnatune and Amazon but that isn't the main focus. I've grown bored with the number of musicians who proudly proclaim, in a snooty and condescending manner, that their main reason for creating and producing music isn't finanical and yet, when you visit their web site, the focus is almost exclusively on buying their discs and/or downloads and, worse still, providing a useful source of information is nearly always a secondary consideration.
So, enjoy the site. Have a look around, read the blog, the gig guide and listen to the choonz and then tell us what you think.
Best Wishes, David and Jules, Thinking Metal Music
30-Mar-08: Radio Interview Harborough FM
The interview on the Terry Hawke Radio Show on Harborough FM went fairly smoothly. Terry is keen to organise a follow-up interview at the end of April or early May. Next time, I think I'd rather we drove down to the studio and did the interview face-to-face because I find that the phone is less than ideal.
Click on either of the pictures of Dave above to hear the full interview.
29-Mar-08: Radio Interview Harborough FM / Tangerine Dream Fanzone
As mentioned below, I'll be appearing on the Terry Hawke Radio Show on Harborough FM at around 1040pm GMT tonight.
Apparently, I'm also on the Tangerine Dream Fanzone Podcast as well.
All part of my dastardly plan to take over the Universe...
28-Mar-08: Radio Interview Harborough FM
I'll be appearing on the Terry Hawke Radio Show on Harborough FM at around 1040pm GMT on Saturday 29th March 2008.
Terry is a big fan of Ion and SkinMechanix and we'll be talking about the evolution of those two outfits and where I plan to take them in the near future. The plan is to play maybe 5 or 6 tracks from Future Forever and The Secret Life of Angels so there should be lots to listen to. I just hope I can avoid swearing on air.
15-Mar-08: On-line shop woes
What a way to spend a Saturday night? Fixing problems with our blasted on-line shop.
I found an error in the shell scripts that process PayPal orders and this stopped all transactions from proceeding. Argghhh!!! No wonder the shop has been quiet for a week! I checked that it was working after I made the changes but something must have been stuck in the cache. Proof positive that I should not be allowed anywhere near a text editor! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Slaps forehead with palm of hand!!!
If you've tried ordering a disc or a download from the on-line shop via PayPal in the past week and the transaction failed then please try again. I've checked everything out and I know it's all working properly. Honest.
14-Mar-08: Airplay this weekend
Ion will headline at an Awakenings event later this year (probably September 27th). Jules C will be assisting on keys and moog-aerobics. We'll publish more information when it becomes available.
This weekend, music by Ion and SkinMechanix will feature on the TD Fan Zone Podcast and on Terry Hawke's radioshow on Harborough FM. A live, phone-in/link-up is scheduled for April 2008.
A couple of other stations said they would be playing tracks but they haven't confirmed. We'll add more news when we have it.
13-Feb-08 Tangerine Dream Fan Zone
Ion and SkinMechanix both feature in the latest podcast, dated 13th February 2008 from the Tangerine Dream Fan Zone site. Thanks to Chris Neumann for his enthusiastic support.
13-Feb-08 Links
As discussed in a previous update, we've restored and revised the Links section. This page hasn't been in the right place for a couple of years and so wasn't generating much trafic into the site. The list of linked sites has been extended a little whilst a small number of bad links have been removed. One or two organisations/individuals who we no longer deal with have also been removed. If you're one of them and you're not happy with being tossed aside in such a casual and yet highly amusing manner then all I can say is "Tough Titty" - you should have replied to the e-mails I sent you.
The general revision of the whole web site continues. I've removed some duff/invalid links that turned up in our web activity log over the last couple of days so some of your old links may not be valid. They should still re-direct you back into the site. If they don't then please let us know.
We're also looking at putting on some gigs sometime in the near future. The venues will be quirky and interesting, if we can get permission/insurance and, critically, an audience. You see, everything depends upon one simple factor - attendance. We'd love to put on a large number of decent gigs featuring well known artists from around the UK, Europe and the States but there's no point if nobody bothers to turn up to the event. It isn't really about the money - well, yes it is because the company has to fund such exercises out of its own pockets - but I can't see any point in spending two or three months organising a gig if only 6 people and a bored dog turn up on the night.
So, if you want to see a couple of Thinking Metal gigs in the near future, please use the Contact form and let us know who you'd like to see perform.
12-Feb-08 Promotion update / Concert tracks
We are delighted to announce that James Friedland has joined our ranks to help promote the bands currently signed to Thinking Metal. James has been playing in local bands for the past 20 years and is very knowledgeable and passionate about electronic music. We're sure that he will be a great asset to the team.
The Ion/SkinMechanix gig performed last December as part of the Man and Machines Symposium at Newcastle University has been released under the title of Universal and is now available as a streaming audio broadcast.
The Universal performance was the follow-up to a lecture given by David Hughes entitled Software Systems for Musical Improvisation and features a mixture Ion and SkinMechanix tracks. These were largely improvised using a range of hardware and software sequencers to give a practical demonstration of the techniques outlined in the talk.
To listen to Universal, just click on Listen in the above menu bar. The concert runs for 22 minutes and the track titles are as follows:
1. Altitude 2. Sancho Panzer 3. Garden Party 4. Aurora 5. Waving at Mono Ion's Future Forever is currently sitting at number 17 in Magnatune's Top Ten and is also the featured disc over at the MusicZeit download site.
03-Feb-08 Major site update
The online-shop has been fully revised and updated. The layout is hopefully more logical and easy to use, the links page has been restored and some of the unusual page formatting problems have been corrected. I've also updated all of the individual web pages so that they're using the same style sheets. Whilst this means that the web pages all look consistent and, more importantly, they work, they don't have their own identity. That's the next step, to break them away from the Thinking Metal style sheets and into their own.
Both Ion and SkinMechanix have been enjoying a lot of airplay recently, far more than in recent years. This is very, very encouraging.
04-Dec-07 Ion / Skin Mechanix straight into the Magnatune Top Ten
The debut albums from Ion and SkinMechanix were released on the Magnatune download service over the weekend and both albums jumped straight into the Top Ten chart.
12-Oct-07 Ion / Flying Over Blue Waters video
The pilot version of the video for Flying over Blue Waters is now available on YouTube. This is the pilot version only, meant to illustrate the idea and to see what sort of technology was required to complete the project. The video has a few problems but we still felt that it was worth releasing because it looks pretty damned cool.
The video was filmed entirely in the virtual world SecondLife, using avatars in place of real actors. They're easier to work with than real actors, don't have hissy fits at inconvenient times and don't try to score with your girlfriend when you're trying to sort out a problem with the lighting.
Yes, there are some technical flaws. At the time the video was put together, we didn't know how to get rid of the digital on-screen graphics. That's been fixed and so the next step is to finish the video, ready for full release. That should be in a couple of weeks.
10-Oct-07 Face lift
This section of the site is getting something of a makeover. I just looked at it for the first time in a couple of weeks and it's as dull as dishwater.
17-Sep-07 Ion / Future Forever on Echoes
John Diliberto of Echoes Radio send an e-mail last night to let us know that Ion's Future Forever will feature in their upcoming playlists. This is terrific news because it means that Ion will now be able to reach a very large audience indeed.
Echoes is a daily two-hour music soundscape, distributed by Public Radio International and broadcast on over 150 US radio stations from Maine to California. Host John Diliberto, a writer for Billboard, Pulse and other magazines, brings together a wide array of styles, from acoustic to electronic, jazz to space music, the avant-garde to rock. Echoes is a sound that is cross-cultural and trans-millennial, merging cultures and forms, technology and tradition, the ancient past and the possible future.
11-Sep-07 Ion / Future Forever
We are delighted to announce that Future Forever by Ion will be available on the Magnatune download service. Magnatune have to be one of the best companies we've ever dealt with - consistently friendly, open and honest. They're like a breath of fresh air in the music business. Other record companies please take note: this is how it should be done.
We're also quietly optomistic that Magnatune will also take on The Fabulous Neutrinos and The Secret Life of Angels, which would be nice. :)
20-Aug-07 File downloads/Illegal discs
I was ego-googling again this morning and my search turned up a couple of MP3 download sites who appear to be selling copies of, amongst others, The Secret Life of Angels. Well, whilst it's flattering to find one's music worthy of being bootlegged, I think it's fair to point out that you'd be a bit of a tit if you fell for their little scam.
The worst offender says he's based in Moscow and, to download my album, all you have to do is enter your credit card details into their, ahem, secure server. Once you've been suckered into that small piece of insanity, they will then send you a link to my album. That's nice of them.
Meanwhile, I have a sneaking suspicion that they'll also sell your card details to as many illegal operations as there are in the Moscow phone directory and, as any good Russian will tell you, there are an aweful lot of them.
So, if you do want to steal my albums, please do so. I'll even tell you where to steal them from:
http://www.mp3fiesta.com/letter/s/
All part of the service. :)
13-Aug-07 File downloads
Over the weekend, we discovered that a naughty person had decided to share one of the links to the Ion album with a bunch of his friends and, as a result, around 40 copies of the disc were stolen from the server.
Now, we don't earn a huge bunch of money from these album sales and contrary to popular belief, I don't drive around in a gold-plated Rolls-Royce or a Ferrari. In fact, me and my Homies cruise our patch in a rusty old M-registration Volkswagen Golf so, as you can imagine, there isn't much money in this busines. We do it because we like music and we like other people to enjoy what we do.
When you download the album, you're really paying for the storage space on the server and the network bandwidth required to move the files from my computer to yours. We cover the costs, but only just. Our situation isn't helped when one of our dealers sells our CD's at a price which is lower than our download service. Yes, that's right. He's actually selling the discs at a loss. Go figure.
Now, if you don't want to pay for this service and are quite happy to steal my music from me, fair enough. That's on your conscience, not mine.
But next time, be a bit more careful, will you? At least make sure that my data logger doesn't record your IP address, your country, your city and your e-mail address. Chump.
12-Aug-07 Web page facelift
The major facelift to the web pages is nearly complete. The only section remaining is the on-line shop, which will have to wait until next week though it will be a brave man who attempts to sort that lot out. 7,000 lines of Javascript and no comments. I am such a happy bunny.
02-Aug-07 Myspace update
We are currently updating the Thinking Metal MySpace page, which we have quietly ignored since it was started some time last year when this project was first mooted. Watch this space.
30-Jul-07 Thinking Metal update
Thinking Metal itself is finally up and running again. Most of the links on the site now work properly. Those that don't will be fixed in the next couple of days. We're still on the same server as Infection Music but that should change in the near future.
It's been 8 years since the label was discontinued. Now we're back and looking forward to a big, bright future under our own flag.
Why the split from Infection Music? Essentially, we haven't really split away from Infection Music. They're our parent company and we share the same personnel but, with ThinkingMetal the emphasis will be on creating new music and releasing it to a wider audience. With Infection Music, the priority was always going to be on designing and developing new instruments and the musical side of the business tended to take second place, often a poor second place, behind the instruments. The new structure should help remedy that because the operations are now independant.
The initial focus of the revived label will be to start developing a live set for both Skin Mechanix and T-Bass. We're not really sure if we want to push Ion into the live scene just yet, certainly not until we have a larger body of work down on tape. Once the live sets are in place, we can then start to think about the next batch of releases and, in particular, getting some new material recorded. Both Skin Mechanix and T-Bass are overdue for new albums. The last T-Bass album came out 6 years ago, so this one has priority though we acknowledge that this depends very much on the availability of the artists. Thankfully, SkinMechanix has a huge body of new material available. Clearly, we need to start looking through the archives to see what can be dusted off and polished up.
Why the emphasis on live work? Well, simply because there's so much free music available from sites like MySpace.com and virb.com that it's actually getting difficult to give away our music these days. Live gigs has always been the best way to get a band into the public domain and we honestly believe that it always will be the case. Plus, we feel that once we get these bands used to playing live again then the new material will start to flow naturally.
20-Jul-07 Thinking Metal Web site launched
The Thinking Metal is finally up and running. Early days yet and some of the links don't work properly but we're getting there.
