1994

In 1994, 16 year old John, influenced by the then-new sounds of jungle and trip hop, began experimenting with dance music. After playing around with rave music for a couple of years, John wrote his first proper track as Psychadelik Pedestrian at the end of 1994 called "Jungle Warfare". Moving on from the rave sound, "Jungle Warfare" used amen breakbeats and layered them with acid style synth sounds and a soaring operatic vocal sample.

1995

In 1995, after several more experimental Psychadelik Pedestrian tracks, John completed a tape compilation complete with bizarre cover, "The Great Divide" (pictured). Later in the year, a follow-up was also completed called "Distorted Reality", which featured a harder, techno orientated sound, and didn't prove as popular.

Around this time, John was also experimenting with house and club music both on his own and with various other people using the alias InteracKt, began to use the inscription "Frantik Records" on his tapes.

1996

Following the disappointing reaction to "Distorted Reality", John decided to use his Psychadelik Pedestrian alias just for writing breakbeat and trip-hop, and invented a new artist name for hardcore and techno - John D - really imaginative! With his tapes gaining a reasonable following, John encouraged his friend Andrew Amery (pictured) to join Frantik and write some tracks in March 1996. Andrew's first tune was "Mindwarp"; he used the artist name Redmann which he has kept ever since.

By the end of 1996, John had encouraged several other friends on board. Frantik's main output was hardcore and techno although John was still producing house as InteracKt and breakbeat as Psychadelik Pedestrian. John also took to the decks to mix hardcore in the summer of 1996, teaching himself how to mix, badly! After a terrible start, by November he was reasonably proficient and started using the DJ Prism name. Kristian Davies produced his first track in autumn 1996 as Excelsior - a strange mixture of guitar samples and techno beats called "The Great Experiment". Frantik's first compilation tape to feature various artists, "1996 In Frantik Time", appeared at the end of the year, which John sold locally.

1997

In 1997 Frantik really started to move forward. In June, the first promotional compilation, "Volume 1: The Green Album", was put together, and in August, John played live as a hardcore DJ for the first time (pictured).

In September, the second promotional album, "Volume 2: The Blue Album" was put together, which was followed in December by "Volume 3: The Pink Album". The Blue and Pink albums proved the most popular to date with friends and local ravers, despite some admittedly dodgy production on the tracks! By this stage, John had invested in a second hand Roland W30 sampling workstation for production, using it along with his trusty PC and CoolEdit.

In October 1997, Frantik went online for the first time (see right panel) and by the beginning of 1998, Blue and Pink albums had been shipped to America and Australia, thanks to the internet. During the year, the first Frantik logo, nicknamed the "ball logo" (pictured) was first used.

Another name still with us today joined Frantik in 1997 - Dave Kent initially came on board to help with production, but didn't get too involved at this stage due to his dislike of hardcore and techno. Dave returned to the fold in summer 1999, by which time Frantik had become more house and trance orientated.

1998

1998 was a disappointing year for Frantik - the two new compilations that year, the Orange and Purple albums failed to deliver the same success that the Blue and Pink albums, had done in 1997. John and university friend Tristan McGarrigle (pictured) launched FrantikZero Records in 1998 to release a Project Zero single into shops which proved to be a highlight of the year with Tristan's guitars adding a new dimension to the Frantik dance sound. The Project Zero single was the result of a track produced in 1997 featuring Tristan's guitars that originally appeared on the Pink Album.

Sensing the downturn in fortunes during the year was due to a decline in popularity of hardcore, John wrote his last hardcore track as Prism in November 1998, deciding to focus on house and trance music ready for 1999.

1999

1999 provided a revival in fortunes for Frantik, and the sixth compilation, the "Yellow Album" (pictured) proved as successful than 1997's "Pink Album". This was also the first compilation to be available on CD which allowed a new quality of production and recording to begin. John, inspired by trance music producers such as Matt Darey and Ferry Corsten, wrote his first track as Hyperterminal in early 1999, "Thirty One" - and with old producers Dave Kent, Redmann and Excelsior also back on board to provide the likes of "Neurotic"' and "Why Not", the "Traffic Album" (volume 7) became the most professional sounding compilation yet.

Sticking to production, John wound down his DJing in 1999 and spent some time building up the studio with the purchase of a Roland JX-305 synth. This proved a good move - "Seeking You" from September 1999 was the biggest Frantik track of the year. During 1999, John had been introduced to the world of MP3 music and, by chance, discovered MP3.com in December 1999. Instantly John knew this could be the opportunity he had been looking for to get a wider audience, and signed up Frantik artists on 27th December 1999. The first track online was the 1999 remix of PP's "Another Boring Lunchtime" - the first seeds of our net label were sown!

2000

After only a few weeks, it was clear that putting whole tracks online as MP3 files to download was the way forward and at the beginning of 2000, Frantik had a big image change and new web site to provide a link between all the music by Frantik artists across the web. The new image included a new logo (pictured) to replace the ball logo, Frantik became Frantik Music and a domain name was purchased, frantikmusic.co.uk. The new logo and image were to last until the end of 2003.

By May, all Frantik Music artists were on MP3.com and Vitaminic music sites, "Seeking You" had been signed by American label Complex Records and had crept up the Vitaminic chart into the top 10. On MP3.com Prism's old hardcore tracks, now rebranded under the artist name Dreamworld, had a new life and 1997's "Your Smile" became a featured track. Although overshadowed by the internet success, compilation volume 8, "The Earth Album" did reasonably well. DJ Prism also did a slot for internet radio station Inside Beat before it closed down in the summer.

MP3.com's short-lived "Payback For Playback" scheme coincided with John finishing university and enabled him to spend a few months writing music full time towards the end of the year. During 2000, John had also started to produce hard house under a new artist name, Silverknight, and Dave Kent showed us for the first time what he could do on the remix when reworked Psychadelik Pedestrian's "Against The Grain" and Redmann's "Zero Gravity".

2001

2001 was an exciting year for Frantik Music. The first Hyperterminal and Silverknight tracks were signed to Rough Diamond Records and pressed on vinyl, and "Seeking You" achieved number 1 status on Vitaminic UK by gaining the most downloads out of any track on the site. The Frantik Mix series of mixed albums were launched which effectively replaced the unmixed compilation album series - the last edition of which being the "Light Album" (volume 9). By 2001, however, compilation CDs had taken a back seat to music downloads.

Andrew "Redmann" Amery (pictured) continued his comeback in 2001, following up his switch to a funkier sound in his Autumn 2000 track "Zero Gravity" with the funky house stormer "So Sublime", which was voted Frantik Music listeners' favourite track of the year. Space Invaderz burst on the scene in spring 2001 with "Science Fiction", later to become one of Frantik Music's most successful tunes.

On the down side, by the end of the year MP3.com's increasingly commercial based service no longer provided Frantik Music with a new listener base or detailed statistical information, so from December 2001 the Frantik web presence was extended to other sites such as Javamusic and Soundclick. Javamusic was a short lived venture as the service introduced a subscription charge shortly after joining, but Soundclick soon proved a good place to promote music.

2002

2002 saw Frantik Music artists diversify into producing more varied styles of music. Psychadelik Pedestrian's "Night Beach" became the first successful chillout / ambient track, inspiring other artists to try and emulate this success. During the summer, Psychadelik Pedestrian, Redmann and Excelsior all produced more chillout tracks and Frantik artists held the top four places on the Vitaminic downtempo / chillout chart on 20th September. The surprising success of this style of music led to "Not Frantik : The Chilled CD" compilation (pictured) and discussion of a name change for the whole site in 2003. House and trance music were still been on the agenda, and Hyperterminal signed to Cheeky Charas for more vinyl releases.

During 2002, Frantik Music artists began to close down their MP3.com sites in favour of promoting music on Vitaminic and Soundclick. Unfortunately, due to the general decline in popularity of MP3 music sites, download figures again took a tumble despite artists still regularly featuring in the Vitaminic charts. This led to sites such as Javamusic and MP3.com introducing a subscription charge.

Following on from his success in 2001, Redmann produced his first album, "Parallels", featuring "Zero Gravity" and "So Sublime" as well as some newer tracks. John collaborated with Dave Kent as Phish Funk in 2002 with "Phenomenon", which became one of Frantik Music's most popular tracks while after only a year on the scene, and Space Invaderz also became one of Frantik's most downloaded artists. New to Frantik in 2002 was Marc Burt who cut his teeth with bouncy trance track "Elements".

2003

2003 began with the launch of the Frantik Music online shop, selling individual artist mini albums such as Parallels from Redman.

In the Autumn, the name change to Toucan Music was revealed, a name chosen by Andrew "Redmann" Amery. The name change had been in discussion for a while, as the old Frantik name, first used when the music was mainly hardcore and rave, no longer reflected the diverse styles produced by Frantik Music artists.

Another face joined Toucan in 2003, DJ Rise (pictured), who has since produced some of the most familiar Toucan tracks including "Insane" and "Tribal Echo". John ditched his Hyperterminal and Silverknight artist names, emerging again at the end of the year with a trance track called "New Beginning" under a new alias - JMD.

2003 ended with the closure of MP3.com in December, the site which first brought Frantik artists to the attention of the public. By this time most of Frantik Music's output was being promoted on Soundclick and Vitaminic rather than on MP3.com, so the closure of the site wasn't a problem. The last Frantik Music tracks on MP3.com were removed during 2003.

2004

2004 began with the name change, with Frantik Music becoming Toucan Music on 1st January. For three months two domain names were active, with the frantikmusic.co.uk domain expiring in March after four years in use.

The first Toucan logo was of a simple, flat graphic design. The later 3D logo was designed as an image for the front of the first Toucan web site The 3D logo soon proved more popular, and the flat design was discontinued from the middle of 2004.

Toucan's series of CD albums was introduced in 2004. Four compilations were eventually produced in 2004 and 2005, sales of these stopping at the end of 2006 when Toucan stopped selling CDs.

26 April 2004 saw the opening of a new music site - Music.Download.com. Run by CNet - owners of Download.com, the new site was effectively a replacement for MP3.com, now hosting music only by major artists. This new resource proved an instant hit with music fans, giving Toucan artists, whose music was available on the site from the launch day, instant promotion.

Music wise, hardcore was back on the scene having enjoyed a renaissance amongst dance music fans since 2002. By 2004, John was producing new tracks as Dreamworld (logo pictured) as well as promoting his old Prism material under the name, and "Voyage To Saturn" was the most downloaded Toucan track of the year. Marc Burt's "Turbulence" received the second highest number of downloads that year, reflecting the growing popularity of laid back, progressive trance and house. Redmann completed his second album, "Universe", which introduced a more melodic, commercial sound to his previous material.

2005

2005 saw Toucan's rebirth as a fully fledged 'net label' with the launch of a new look web site with downloads direct from the site for the first time. Tracks before 1st March 2005, which were already online, were gradually added during the course of the year to the back catalogue which was completed in November, hosted by the Internet Archive. All back catalogue tracks were remastered, and some tracks were online in full for the first time ever, while others made a reappearance for the first time in three years. Despite the music now being directly available on the Toucan site, external sites continued to host Toucan tracks. Sadly Vitaminic, one of the most effective music promotion sites used by Toucan for over five years shut it's doors in December 2005, and by the end of the year Music.Download.com and Soundclick were the major sites hosting Toucan tunes.

DJ Rise continued his meteoric rise to fame, with three of his tunes becoming the top three most downloaded Toucan tracks of 2005. Dreamworld tracks continued to do well, while Psychadelik Pedestrian (pictured) tracks enjoyed a renaissance with remixes of 2002 old skool breakbeat tune "One Five Eight" complimenting new tracks "Twist Turn Slide" and "Memories". JMD proved more popular as a remixer than original artist during 2005, with John's takes on DJ Rise's "House Trancefusion" and Marc Burt's "Elements" both making the download top ten at the end of the year. Meanwhile, John continued to confuse the issue by creating a new artist name for house, Beat Doctor.

2006

2006 began with the launch of Toucan Hardcore, sister net label to Toucan Music, to cater for the popularity of hardcore. Progressive house and trance were also in vogue, with Beat Doctor, Marc Burt and Phish Funk putting out several new tracks during the year, while DJ Rise turned his hand to a more progressive style with "Pattaya Boom Boom", influenced by his time in Thailand.

Redmann's third album "Horizons" (cover pictured) was launched on 14th September, illustrating a return to a more minimal, funky style but with some new, harder synth sounds. To promote the album, Redmann's 2001 track "So Sublime" made a return during 2006 with new mixes by artists including JMD and Phish Funk.

Toucan jumped on the podcasting bandwagon during the year, with a podcast feed going live to promote the latest tracks. Following the success of this venture, John was the host for Toucan's first feature length podcast mix in September, closely following by Redmann.

At the end of the year, the online shop closed and Toucan stopped selling CDs, leaving the Internet as the only place to get Toucan Music - a truly online label!

2007

The Toucan website was relaunched in January 2007 with a completely new look. During the year we also launched several exciting new features to the site - creative commons licences, allowing you to freely use our music, and track and artist searching, launched in July. Other developments included the launch of our Last.FM site in January and adding our Premium Release catalogue to Beats Digital.

During the year several new faces provided some guest remixes, including Vibemaster B and Seyzer Koze. Risey once again came up trumps in the download charts, with his "Memories of Thailand" becoming the most popular new track of the year.

24th October 2007 was the tenth birthday of the original Frantik Music website, and to celebrate Prism's 1997 track "Your Smile" was remixed and re-released, while Redmann mixed together a track from every year between 1997 and 2007 in a podcast special.