New Website Launched!

At long last (and I mean loooooong...) the revamped Hypnoticbeats website has been launched

A huge chunk is still not live (My History of Electronica) but I hope to get that bit open too in the next few months...

New Hypnoticbeats Website Progress

The new website is coming along fine. Only problem is that I keep wanting to add more and more content so the finished article seems further and further away! Especially my own History of Electronica which is growing exponentially...

The urge to make music has also been a pleasant distraction and I have managed to knock up a few new tracks which you can here on my Myspace webpage soon

It's HOT in Russia tonight

Been tuning into to Deep Mix - Moscow Radio tonight - superb funky, minimal tech house -clean & crisp beats

Yea!!!

POGO Yeah, woohoo, there's something in the air

I'm a sucker for a good bassline and a catchy riff and Pogo by "Digitalism" has both. Saw it first as an embedded video on someones MySpace page and the vids fantastic too

You can hear New Order style guitars in there a mile off but it sounds really fresh and new - a crossover between 80's Synthpop, current underground dance and Indie, the latter not really my thing but I can't stop playing this tune!

Having rushed out and bought the album at the weekend I can say that first impressions are that the rest of the album isn't much like this tune. It reminds me a lot of Daft Punk & Air, the French connection is much more obvious when you hear the album and it's more dance orientated - a good listen nevertheless

Perfect for friday evening......Melodic Drum n Bass!!

Please don't let Web Radio die! DnbRadio is kicking serious ASS tonight.....

24/7 Drum and Bass, Jungle,and Liquid Funk

Like a breath of fresh air........

Hypnoticbeats Website

Finally making progress on the new Hypnoticbeats Website - hoping to get it finished in the next few weeks.....

Back to the Future - A short history of computers

A quick trip down memory lane just to see how far computers have come since I first used them....

If my memory is correct the first computer I actually used was at school and it was a "Research machines 380z" a true beast of a machine which when launched in 1977 ran at 4mhz and supported between 4 and 56k Ram. This advert details the monster spec you get for nearly £1800! which back in 1977 was a 'lot' of cash

Next our school got hold of the now infamous BBC Model A & B computers which ran at 1.8 MHz and had upto 64k Ram - I remember the sound capabilities were pretty advanced for the day

The first computer I remember using at home was the Apple IIe ('e' standing for enhanced). Ours came with 3 external 5 1/4 inch drives and I remember spending the entire summer programming in code for games that I got from a magazine. The Apple ran at 1.02 MHz and had upto 64k Ram so although essentially a business computer it had imilar processing power to the BBC Bringing things up to date, for just over £1000 the new iMac that we are using in our office at the moment is like something out of a sci-fi film in comparison - all this in 30 years

I wonder if the difference between the iMac of today and whats on offer in 30 years will be as marked?

New Ulrich Schnauss Album - "Goodbye"

Only heard the title track but it is predictably stunning! go buy....

Ulrich Schnauss on Myspace

HUMAN LEAGUE will perform 'DARE' in it's entirety for the very first time

Fan-bloomin-tastic!!

One of my fave albums of all time and a big influence on me so this is great news

Seen the League live twice before and it's always a seductive mix of pure synthpop genius coupled with 80's school disco nostalgia for me but this should be something special - glad I have managed to secure reasonable tickets for the Nottingham Gig - albeit 6 days after it was announced - doh

Full details on the League Online website but the gist is as follows:

Electronically Yours is delighted to reveal the 2007 dates where The Mighty League will perform 'Dare' in it's entirety for the very first time. The League's manager Simon Watson today confirmed the dates and details regarding the TBC dates should be known shortly.Tickets will go on sale this weekend though Simon is keen to stress that some venues may be slow in getting these details up so keep an eye on venue websites and other outlets such as ticketmaster.co.uk.

November
Mon 26 tbcTue 27 UK, Nottingham, Royal Concert Hall
Wed 28 tbcThur 29 Day OffFri 30 UK, Manchester, Apollo

DecemberSat 1 UK, London, Hammersmith Apollo
Sun 2 Day Off
Mon 3 UK, Stoke on Trent, Hanley Victoria Hall Tue 4 UK, Wolverhampton, Civic Hall
Wed 5 UK, Norwich, UEA
Thur 6 Day OffFri 7 UK, Sheffield, City Hall
Sat 8 Day OffSun 9 UK, Glasgow, Academy
Mon 10 UK, Perth, Horsecross Tue 11 UK, Gateshead, The Sage With thanks to Sidewinder.

Covenant - The Men (Remix Version)

Joined the 'dark side' for tonights musical entertainment - Tormented Radio are serving up a fine blend of EBM & industrial...

Stand out track so far is the superb Covenant - The Men (Remix Version) - awesome! melodic, powerful and great vocals (normally the weak point with this style of music for me)

Check out the superb (if a bit slow) Covenant website

DAVE GAHAN - New Album!

DAVE GAHAN - "HOURGLASS"
http://www.davegahan.com/news/press_release_20070626.html
It has a title! Dave's second solo album, slated for a late October release, will be titled "Hourglass". Check out the press release for some insight into the recording process, upcoming song titles, and the crew behind the album!

Look forward to that - especially as it states "HOURGLASS is more electronic-sounding than Paper Monsters"

Autechre - Eutow

Just tuned into the superb Limbik Frequencies web radio station and they are playing 'Eutow' by Autechre - what a SUPERB track!!

Some early tracks from Autechre have left me fairly underwhelmed but this is a corker and although the album it is from, 'Tri Repetae' has been out for ages it is still on my shopping list

Worth checking out

Thingamagoops

I must get me one of these!
Thingamagoops are really just simple, analog type synthesizers but I can see why the are popular....very silly....

Watch the demo or check out the site

Tycho

Just listening to the album by Tyco called "Past is Prologue" (Merck044 2006)

Superb IDM, really gentle and relaxing and although obviously falls into the bleepy IDM category somewhere, the main point of this is 'melody' and electronics, not predictable sound effects - Nice......

Check out the official website

ABF Mix - Oliver Shine

Respect to Oliver Shine!!

Playing rocking set tonight on the monster French web radio channel ABF - massive

Tune in now!!

http://www.radioabf.net

http://www.olivershine.com

Spaceman-technologies

Check this awesome site out Spaceman-technologies even 'sounds' cool!

Especially the ELECTRONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND INTERFACES

"In 2003/2004 Spaceman Technologies developed quite a number of innovative sound synthesis and electronic music controllers, sequencers and interfaces. These efforts were mainly concentrated on developing tactile instruments, sequencers and mixing desks based around the Spaceman Technologies multi-object tracking and multi-touch sensor technologies, in collaboration with Novation EMS Ltd. In addition to these projects various DSP-based sound synthesis and spectrum analysis toys and gadgets were developed such as the SoundMouse and the OpticalMicrophone."

New Hypnoticbeats website

At last I have started the task of revamping my website!

Going for a much simpler uncluttered approach using better software and taking the time to utilise photos I have taken and manipulate them for use on the site.

Hoping to get this done in the next week or so - watch this space.....

2nd, 3rd, 4th...Life - Alternatives to the Mighty Second Life

Not content with having just the 'one' virtual life to accompany my real one, I thought I would investigate the competition........

Findings so far is that there are an increasing number of 'Virtual worlds' becoming available, each with their own personality, strengths and weaknesses. These are not simply 'online gaming worlds' like World of Warcraft and Eve Online

I haven't tried Kaneva, Dotsoul and There.com yet (the latter looking very primitive!) because there seems to be one main rival to Second Life that stands out and that's Entropia Universe
The first thing of note is that the client software is a staggering 1GB download! compared to Second Life which is only 31mb. The setup for EU is similar to SL, you start by designing your avatar then enter the world (choosing 1 of 2 initial destinations) then you are usually met by in world guides.

My first impression of EU was that the graphics, sounds and music were excellent (see load up screen below) possibly better than SL.

However being faced with a barrage of complex movement controls was disappointing and a tad frustrating, maybe ok for hardened gamers but no way as instantly usable as basic arrow keys in SL

However.... now I have started to figure it out, there are a few nifty movements which can come in useful. Here's a picture of my avatar getting help from the in world guide:

The graphics are pretty impressive:

This article gives a good comparison of Entropia Universe and Second Life
From what I have found, there seems to be more activity and research into using SL for teaching and education than EU, though that's not say the potential isn't there for EU also - especially with it's flourishing virtual economy

Entropia Universe has also just partnered With Chinese Cyber-Giant to Create a New Network Capable of Handling 7 Million Concurrent Users and $1 Billion in Commerce Annually - full details here.

It's also worth noting that Anshe Chung Studios are to Link Virtual World Economies by creating the first financial market and financial services infrastructure that spans multiple virtual worlds.

Other big players are getting involved too - there are rumours about Google turning Google Earth into a sort of Second Life competitor (according to Michael Eisenberg, a partner at Benchmark). even the BBC are planning to launch a virtual world for children called CBBCWorld
who knows where this will end - maybe in the future it will be possible to travel 'between worlds' using a 'virtual airline service' ( Maybe I should set one up....) or even when cryonics becomes of age your concious being could be transferred to a Second life avatar -hmmmm

Virtual Headphones Offer Private Audio

More cool audio innovation - check the full story here

May 15, 2007
A new multiple speaker system recreates the headphone experience without the cord — or the headphones. The speakers focus sound to a small area around the user, yet just a few feet outside that zone, the sound is nearly inaudible. Such a system could work well for home media but could also go a long way to providing office workers hands-free communication without interrupting nearby colleagues.

"The guy who is 1.5 meters (5 feet) away cannot hear what you can hear," said Ivan Tashev, software architect in the speech technology group at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Wash. What's more, he said, "We can adjust the listening zone electronically without doing any mechanical movement."

Turn any flat surface into a speaker

How cool is this? It was featured in a recent edition of Focus mag and wasn't even 'that' expensive...... What if you could turn any flat surface into a speaker? The "Nimzy Vibro Max" promises to do just that, by reproducing sound through vibrations spread across any flat platform made of a hard substance such as metal, plastic, wood or glass. The idea has been tried before, but GadgetCentre says the cube-shaped Vibro Max has an integrated amplifier that's more powerful than previous models.

Also worth a look is : The Soundbug
The Soundbug is a British designed innovation about the size of a computer mouse and turns any hard surface into a speaker! Simply plug it into your music device (MP3 Player, CD Player, FM Radio, etc...), stick it on a door, window or desk, hit play and prepare to be amazed when your surface of choice starts singing back at you!

Hypnotica Enters Entropia Universe

Now this is a new one on me. Spurred on by the increasing interest in Second life in the media I thought I'd seek out alternatives, the only real (or virtual...) alternative is Entropia Universe

First impressions are....graphics & sound great, controls to move tricky!

Keep you posted as I investigate further

Further reading:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/17/entropia-universe-a-better-second-life/
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=259436

Hypnotica Enters Second Life

Ok I've been there for about a year but if you haven't experienced the virtual world of Second Life yet - give it a go!!

Thinking about streaming my music to a location in second Life....

Every geek on the planet will want one - including me

Ok. Not strictly music related but this is so cool I had to mention it on my blog!

Yesterday, Microsoft took the wraps off "Milan", five years in the making and the first in what the company hopes will be a long line of "surface computers". The Microsoft tabletop PC, called "Surface", for which Microsoft has created both the hardware and software, offers shades of the technology seen in the sci-fi thriller Minority Report. The whole unit is controlled entirely through touch — there's no mouse or keyboard.

To me it resembles the table top space invaders that used to inhabit pubs in the 80's but with technology light years ahead

Read about the announcement here or go to the Surface website

Tiesto - Elements of life

Although, originally a huge fan, I have drifted away from trance music a but as the market became saturated with bland, samey 'chart' trance. The supermarkets music sections were overflowing with talentless pap made to a formula with generic girly vocals over the top and predictable breakdowns. Which is a shame

When it kicked off, trance was exciting, energetic, melodic and original. The best stuff 'as always' German and Dutch. Talla 2XLC, DJ Taucher, BT, Ferry Corsten, Sasha, Paul Van Dyk and many others were exponents of the early trance movement and you could always guarantee good stuff from them.

Tiesto was another trance god and his mixes were always highly melodic and veered towards 'head music' to be enjoyed at home as much as 4 to the floor stuff in a club. Most genres become exhausted eventually and despite these artists being highly talented I felt that enough was enough so stopped buying compilations a while ago.

Since then only the odd trance album / artist has caught my attention, Armin Van Buuren has done a few corkers, Talla is still piling out awesome mixes and recently of all places I heard Tiesto's latest album blaring out over a small hi-fi in PC World at the weekend

"Elements of life" is a classic! only heard it briefly but it's definitely worth checking out - trance is apparently not dead....

Check Tiesto's website here

80's music fans come on down.....

Gig review: The Hitmakers Tour : Toyah Willcox, ABC & Howard Jones 15/11/06

Due to 'life' generally getting in the way, I have only just finished doing this gig review of a concert I went to at the end of '06. The bottom line being "I'm glad I went but with a sellout audience it could have been a very different night......"

You can find the full review on my website:

http://www.hypnoticbeats.co.uk/gigreviews.htm

OMD Live at the Hammersmith Odeon Fri 18th May 2007

Still coming down from the awesome OMD gig in London I went to recently. ALWAYS wanted to see them live and failed to do so in the 80's so beat myself up about it every time I play music by them!

Anyway the gig was superb and if you have a spare half an hour to kill, feel free to read my 6 act play about the gig on my Hypnotica website here

I have managed to get good tickets for the Nottingham Royal Centre gig too so I will be getting another fix pretty soon :-)

Check out OMD's official site here

Musique Non Stop

Can't put it off any longer - lets get this party started!

This blog will be an unstructured collection of musical thoughts as they come to mind. Expect my current playlists, gig updates, news on my activities as Hypnotica and anything else that may appear vaguely interesting - but definitely with a large bias to music and technology

Welcome and I hope you enjoy the blog