2004

[15-Oct-2004] MARRIAGE!
Toucan Music's John Dalling (a.k.a. PP, JMD) and bride Louise Griffiths tied the knot in Carmarthen on Saturday 9th October 2004.

[27-Sep-2004] TOUCAN ANNIVERSARY - SPECIAL FEATURES
Toucan is celebrating two landmarks this December - 10 years since the first track was produced by a Toucan artist (Psychadelik Pedestrian's 'Jungle Warfare' from 1994) and 5 years since our first music was available online in MP3 format (Hyperterminal's 'Seeking You').
To mark the occasion, special features are in preparation for the site. Firstly, as well as our usual charts at the end of the year there'll be a chart for the top total Toucan / Frantik Music downloads over the past five years. Toucan artists will also be listing their top tunes of the last 10 years, and giving their reasons why - and last, but by no means least, there'll be some high quality 128kbps downloadable MP3s of our classic tracks for a limited time only! Watch this space - the anniversary section is planned for launch on December 1st.

[06-Sep-2004] TOUCANMUSIC.COM FORUM LAUNCHED
The Toucan Music Forum was launched today with areas for discussion with artists and tracks. Click here to enter the forum - a link will be added to the main menu shortly.

[06-Sep-2004] LATEST TOUCAN CHART HIGHLIGHTS
Today, PP's 'Sands Of Time' topped the Vitaminic UK Downtempo / Chillout chart, with 'Filter Groove' at no. 2, the latest chart success from Toucan Music. On 4th September, The Toucan got the top three places on the Vitaminic Breakbeat chart with 'Point Blank' at no. 1, 'Freshen Up (Bathroom remix)' at no. 2 and 'Push It Down' at no. 3.
Space Invaderz are currently the sixth most popular Hard Trance artists on Music.Download.Com, the second from the UK; and Marc Burt is now the second most popular Progressive artist on Music.Download.Com, the most popular from the UK.

[01-Sep-2004] FIRST UK DOWNLOAD CHART REVEALED
The first ever official UK download chart was revealed today! Whether this move will prove to be as historic as the first record sales charts printed in the 1950s is anyone's guess, but nobody involved in the mp3 scene can deny this isn't a huge moment for online music.
Unfortunately, the first UK download number 1 wasn't from any underground dance innovators, but from boyband Westlife! The official download chart takes figures from iTunes, Napster, MyCokeMusic, Streets Online, 7 Digital Media, Playlouder, MSN Music, Big Noise Music, HMV, Virgin, Tiscali Music, Sonic Selector and Wanadoo. Find out more about the official download chart here at the BBC website. View the full official download chart here.

[30-Aug-2004] STUDIO INFO ADDED TO SITE
For all those interested in the technical side of things, information about the Toucan Music studio has been added to the About Toucan section of the site. The studio section includes a list of all the equipment used by Toucan artists who record in-house.

[30-Aug-2004] REDMANN ALBUM COVER & TRACK LISTING REVEALED
The track listing for the second Redmann album has been revealed. The album, entitled 'Universe' is to have an October 2004 launch and will feature the following tunes and remixes:
Embrace, Scratching The Surface, Get Here, Calling Out Your Name (unreleased), Time On Your Hands, Zero Gravity 2004, Embrace (PP remix), Scratching The Surface (Dave Kent remix), Get Here (John Dalling's Dancefloor Dub), Calling Out Your Name (The Toucan remix - unreleased), Time On Your Hands (JMD remix), Zero Gravity 2004 (JMD remix), Move Slower (PP v Redmann)
The cover art was provided by Andrew Amery (aka Redmann) himself. The album is available to pre-order now via our online shop.

[02-Aug-2004] TRACKS NOW REMOVED
To save disk space, as well as to focus interest on artists' latest material, the following tracks are in the process of being deleted from all download sites:
PP - Chilled Nitrogen / Endless Time (Redmann rmx) / Endless Time (original)
Redmann - Wonderland / Zero gravity (original) / Turn The Corner (original and PP rmx) / Move Harder / Zero Gravity (Dave Kent remix)
*Redmann's old material will be available on his 'Parallels' album
Dreamworld - Losing Control / Piano Euphoria
Hopefully if you wanted to get your hands on these, you took heed of our warning a few weeks ago!

[24-Jul-2004] OFFICIAL DOWNLOAD CHART TO BE LAUNCHED
The first official UK download chart will be published on 1 September 2004 (see BBC News page here). Of course, some people will be surprised that such a chart doesn't already exist, but that's probably partly due to the illegal nature of most popular music downloading until the legal launch of sites such as iTunes and Napster recently.
When we first began putting tunes online five years ago, music downloading was either about getting new legal tracks from unsigned artists (such as ours) or doing the illegal thing and getting the latest commercial tracks from somewhere like Napster. These days, with famous artists online legally on a variety of sites, it seems like it could be hard for unknown acts to get heard. This certainly doesn't seem to be the case however, as our experience this year has been to have our best download figures for three years!
So if you check out the official chart on 1 September, just remember we've been doing download charts for four years - and most of our tracks are still free!

[11-Jul-2004] OLDER TRACKS SET TO BE DELETED
Here's notice that several of our older tunes are set to be deleted to make space for new material. These tracks will be deleted progressively from 1 August 2004, so download now to avoid disappointment! Some tracks will be deleted from certain sites only, and some will be removed from all sites.
The tracks which will be going completely are as follows:
PP - One Five Eight / Chilled Nitrogen / Monkeys Ate My Fish Tank (rmx) / Endless Time (Redmann rmx)
Redmann - Wonderland / Wonderland (rmx) / Zero gravity (original) / Turn The Corner (original and PP rmx) / Move Harder / Zero Gravity (Dave Kent remix)
*Redmann's old material will be available on his 'Parallels' album
Dreamworld - Losing Control / Piano Euphoria

[11-Jul-2004] ARTIST PAGES TO SHOW RELEASE DATES
Toucan's artist pages will be updated over the coming months to show online dates of tracks, past and present. The first page to get this treatment is Redmann's which is online now. Look out for the others, coming soon!

[07-Jul-2004] PP TOPS VITAMINIC CHARTS
PP's 'Inner Self' topped the Vitaminic Chillout chart this morning, with the ever popular 'Night Beach' in third place, new track 'Filter Groove' at number five, 'Eternal Truth' at number seven, and 'Travels In The North' at number 10 - giving PP half of the top 10 positions in the chart! 'Outer Self' was also at number 3 in the drum & bass chart.
Talking of monopolising charts, Dreamworld also occupied all ten of the top ten happy hardcore chart places this morning, with 'Reaction One (remix)' at number one.

[22-Jun-2004] APOLOGIES FOR NEW TRACK DELAY
Apologies to all those who visited yesterday only to find Redmann's 'Zero Gravity 2004' was not online as promised! This is because when it was supposed to be uploaded onto Soundclick, their servers were down for maintenance. Although the track has been uploaded onto the other sites (Vitaminic, Download.com and Dance Industries), all these sites approve the track before online release so there will be a delay of a few days before it appears. Soundclick is usually our first port of call for new track uploads as the track appears instantaneously online, and it is hoped to get the track on the Soundclick site asap.

[18-Jun-2004] DJ RISE SUCCESS ON DOWNLOAD.COM
DJ Rise has been another Toucan artist to succeed on Music.Download.Com. Rise is currently the sixth most downloaded trance artist on the site, with 2,500 downloads since the site launch. Here's what the Download.Com reviewers said about his music:
"On his two remixes of 'House Trance Fusion', DJ Rise includes atmospheric textures; rippling, robotic vocal effects; and an erupting breakdown that's not as quite as anthemic as his 'Insane' track. The ball doesn't stop rolling as his hard progressive beats deliver an overall warm blend of infectious fusion."

[14-Jun-2004] NEW TRACK SAMPLES ITSELF
Continuing the trend for unusual sampling usage, PP has taken sampling a stage further on his new track 'Filter Groove', which has it's online release today. 'Filter Groove' is a downtempo, funky breakbeat track which was completed, mastered and then sampled, with the sample from the original put through a filter and layered on top of the original (unmastered) track itself. The track was then remastered. Confused? Yep, thought so.
"The original finished track needed something extra to fatten it up and create more interest" says PP. "The sample was a complete sample of several bars of the original track, but the filter used cut off all the low end to keep the bass standing out. This created a funky, metallic sound." As well as being available online, 'Filter Groove' is available on the ToucanMusic Volume One album from our shop.
So what's going to be sampled next? Watch this space!

[07-Jun-2004] TOILET SAMPLING TOUCAN
Breakbeat maniac The Toucan has taken sampling to even more ridiculous levels on the 'Bathroom' remix of 'Freshen Up', one of the more catchy Toucan Music tracks so far this year. The remix, like the original, is in a breakbeat style but the beats are more cut up, and a heavily distorted bassline is introduced. The track finishes with a sample of a flushing toilet, which was originally recorded by dragging a mic and stand into The Toucan's bathroom.
"The sample was edited with deep reverb and a filter, so it's not used neat" says The Toucan. "It's only recognisable right at the end of the track - although it's been reversed, cut up and used elsewhere." So why sample a toilet? "People have pretty much sampled everything else there is. It's probably even been done before, although I've never heard it used. It is a strange sample to use, but it's a cheeky remix and the sample does fit in with the lyrics and the feel of the track. I don't think it will put people off listening to the music."

[29-May-2004] TOUCAN TRACKS NOW HAVE 'RELEASE DATES'
Ok, so you've seen a track on our latest and forthcoming tunes page you're really looking forward to downloading, having listened to the preview on the top of this page. But when's it coming out? Well now, Toucan Music is saving you having to check the artists pages every week by giving an approximate 'release date' for all forthcoming tracks. Obviously the tracks can't be guaranteed to be online on the exact date stated, but they should be online the same week. All the dates given are Mondays, so the tracks should be available on most sites by the end of the week. Tracks should be available on Soundclick first, followed by Music.Download.Com and Vitaminic.

[29-May-2004] MARC BURT TOPS DOWNLOAD.COM PROGRESSIVE CHART
Marc Burt has become the most downloaded Progressive / Dream dance artist on Music.Download.Com since it's launch. The two mixes of Turbulence (original mix and PP's chilled remix) are the only two Marc Burt tracks on the site and between them they have knocked up over 3,200 downloads since April 26th (that's just over a month). We love this site!! The Toucan is also now on Music.Download.Com at www.download.com/thetoucan.

[27-May-2004] REDMANN FAVOURED BY DOWNLOAD.COM
Another success for a Toucan artist at Music.Download.Com - after Marc Burt hitting the Top 50 last week, Redmann has become the fifth most downloaded artist in the house music section of the site, with the editors writing "Get Here has a hard-hitting wicked beat with filtered bass lines, radiant chording, and infectious percussion. Its resilient flow will have the whole floor jumping. In the month that the site has been running, Redmann has received over 1,300 downloads.

[26-May-2004] NEW FEATURES ADDED TO THE SITE
Some more additions to the front page of the Toucan site... the Classic and Oldie preview boxes! The Classic box will feature a preview of a classic Toucan / Frantik track from the last few years, that's still available for download on the web. The Oldie box will feature a track from the archives that's not available anywhere else.

[26-May-2004] NEW TRACKS COMING SOON
Brand new tunes coming soon from DJ Rise, Redmann and The Toucan! DJ Rise is back, following up 'House Trancefusion' with an upbeat trancey track called 'Tribal Echo', with an infectious synth riff. Redmann's 2004 remix of 'Zero Gravity' will also soon be available, along with a brand new JMD trance remix. The Toucan is also back, with the mad, robotic 'Push It Down', and a distorted electro-breakbeat remix of 'Freshen Up'.

[26-May-2004] GUESTBOOK UPDATED
Thanks to a recent visitor (Jordan X) for pointing out that DJ Rise wasn't selectable as a favourite artist on the guestbook poll! This has now been corrected, and DJ Rise, JMD and The Toucan have all been added as options... also the guestbook heading read 'The Frantik Music Guestbook' - whoops!

[14-May-2004] MARC BURT HITS MUSIC.DOWNLOAD.COM TOP 50
Marc Burt's 'Turbulence' (original mix) has hit the Music.Download.Com top 50 download chart - in only the second week of the site's existence! The track received 619 downloads between May 3rd and May 9th - not a huge figure, you might think, but if a track had this many downloads every week for a year, it would have a massive 32,000 downloads!
At the moment we don't know how well other Toucan tracks have fared, as we don't have any figures - but Music.Download.Com have promised to launch their on-site statistics very soon. If the Marc Burt success is anything to go by, however, we've got off to a promising start!

[09-May-2004] TOUCANMUSIC.COM VOLUME ONE AVAILABLE
The first Toucan Music compilation CD, ToucanMusic.Com Volume One is now available online for £4.50 including postage and packing. The CD contains 14 of the latest Toucan Music tracks and remixes, in styles such as breakbeat, trance, funky house, chillout and hardcore. Artists on the album include PP, Redmann, DJ Rise, JMD, Dreamworld and more.
Purchase your copy from the online shop!

[26-Apr-2004] MUSIC.DOWNLOAD.COM LAUNCHES
Music.Download.Com launched this morning, as promised. The launch seems to have been a relatively low profile affair, and plenty of features are promised for the future, such as previews (at the moment, music on the site is download only). It's still slightly unclear what is happening to the former MP3.com site, which is still 'coming soon' - it does appear to be owned by CNet, owners of Download.Com, but the theory of it being a portal to Music.Download.Com seems to be incorrect!
Also, new artist images have been submitted to replace our current blocky ones - hopefully these will be approved and online by the end of this week.

[25-Apr-2004] MUSIC.DOWNLOAD.COM SET TO LAUNCH TOMORROW
Music.Download.Com is set to launch tomorrow (Monday 26th April 2004). As promised, loads of Toucan Music tracks will be available from the very first day. Artists with working pages will be:
Redmann at http://music.download.com/redmann
PP at http://music.download.com/pp
JMD at http://music.download.com/jmd
Dave Kent at http://music.download.com/davekent
Marc Burt at http://music.download.com/marcburt
Excelsior at http://music.download.com/excelsioruk
DJ Rise at http://music.download.com/djrise
Having now seen the pages, apologies in advance for the blocky images in the right side box. When these were uploaded, it wasn't obvious they would be enlarged, which is why they appear blocky. These will be replaced as soon as possible.

[25-Apr-2004] TOUCANMUSIC.COM ON CD!
The first Toucan Music compilation CD has been completed and will soon be available from the online shop. The CD, Toucanmusic.com Volume One, is just over 70 minutes long and contains 14 of the latest tracks from Toucan Music artists including JMD, Redmann, PP and more. The CD should be available online from 9th May 2004, and a full track listing is available here.

[21-Apr-2004] REDMANN REMIXES ZERO GRAVITY
Redmann has finished a remix of his successful 2000 track, "Zero Gravity". The new version is in a breakbeat style and features elements from the original as well as some new sounds. It will feature on Redmann's forthcoming second album, which will be available towards the end of this year. The original version was the first track to be completed on Redmann's debut album, Parallels (2002), and marked a change in style from hardcore and trance to the laid back, funky house sound Redmann produces today. Redmann is hoping to produce one more track for the second album, which will also feature the remixes of his latest tracks by artists such as Dave Kent and PP.

[16-Apr-2004] TOUCANMUSIC.COM LAUNCH UPDATE
Apologies to anyone who tried to visit the site last night or this morning - there was a small problem after the launch yesterday, and the site went down for a few hours. It's back up now, though, and with no adbar at the top! Over the coming weeks, various updates will take place to the site content, so keep checking back! There will also be some new tracks online, including the JMD remix of 'House Trancefusion' (preview available above).

[16-Apr-2004] MUSIC.DOWNLOAD.COM UPDATE
Music.Download.Com opened it's doors to artists and musicians to upload music on 30th March, and plenty of the latest Toucan tracks have been uploaded already ready for the launch date. There still appears to be no official information about the launch - whether it'll be well publicised or whether it will just 'open' is anyone's guess right now! Tracks have so far been uploaded for Dave Kent, Excelsior, JMD, Marc Burt, PP, Redmann and Rise. Problems have occurred creating artist sites for Dreamworld, Space Invaderz and The Toucan which are still being rectified, and unfortunately someone else has already taken the name Excelsior, so our Excelsior is online as 'Excelsior (UK)' - sorry Kristian! The good news is that this at least suggests the site's going to be popular! For those of you who aren't in the know, Music.Download.Com is the replacement for MP3.com, which closed in December. The new site will be run by CNet, who run www.download.com.

[15-Apr-2004] NEW LOOK TOUCAN SITE LAUNCHED
Welcome to the new look Toucan site! Yes, the news is now on the front page along with previews to some of the hottest new Toucan tracks so there's even less clicking to get to the action! Everything else on the old site is still here - the menu bar at the side looks a bit smaller because the artist profiles have moved to the new artists menu. This hopefully means a greater selection of artist profiles at your fingertips, and it's easier to update too. Various other pages have been revamped - the profiles and tracklists are now all on the same page for each artist as well as links to their music.
You may also have noticed some link buttons appear on the front page lately, these are unfortunately a necessary evil - Toucan has joined several affiliates schemes. All links are relevant to the site, so they're all either music, or UK based (or both). As well as giving us more exposure, hopefully these schemes will bring more UK based visitors - though, of course, you're welcome wherever you're from!

[14-Apr-2004] FRANTIKMUSIC.CO.UK DOMAIN EXPIRES
During early March 2004 the Frantikmusic.co.uk domain name expired, bringing to an end four years of free music at this address. Obviously if you're reading this and you're a past Frantik visitor, you've found our new location. Don't worry - we're not planning another name change for a long long time...

[12-Mar-2004] DANCE INDUSTRIES AND BESONIC SITES LINKED
Links to our Dance Industries and BeSonic sites have been added to the free MP3 page, to give you even more places to choose from to download your Toucan music!

[08-Mar-2004] NEW TRACKS ON DANCE INDUSTRIES WEBSITE
More Toucan tracks have been uploaded to the Dance Industries website over the last month, with hopefully more to come soon. The first Toucan track online with Dance Industries was 'Fire and Ice' by Excelsior (PP remix) in May 2003, but no more tracks were uploaded until February 2004. Now, tracks by The Toucan, PP and JMD have been uploaded. Also brand new online this month are Redmann's new chillout track 'Time On Your Hands' and JMD's 'New Beginning', melodic bouncy trance. Both are on Soundclick and Vitaminic. The first Toucan Music compilation album will be announced shortly, for a summer release.

[16-Feb-2004] TOUCAN ON BESONIC
Toucan Music joined BeSonic.com last week - a European based MP3 site. So far we only have one page for all our music, not individual artist pages (although this could change if BeSonic proves successful). The first track to be uploaded was 'Travels in the North' (PP), with 'Freshen Up' (The Toucan) uploaded by 14th February. You can see our BeSonic.com page at http://www.besonic.com/User/0,1391,g0r0l0t0o0i794902,FF.html

[8-Feb-2004] MP3.COM CLOSES DOWN - MUSIC.DOWNLOAD.COM SET TO OPEN
After four years online, our final material was removed from MP3.com when the pioneering music site shut down in December 2003. Most Toucan material was removed by May 2003, as we decided that Soundclick and Vitaminic offered a better service. The only Toucan material left on MP3.com until the site's closure were two Dreamworld tracks, 'Reaction One (remix edit)' and 'Losing Control'.
The MP3.com site has now been taken over by CNET, also owners of download.com, who plan to launch MP3.com with a new name music.download.com in March 2004. If this new site offers an attractive promotion package, Toucan will be there. Watch this space for news on the first music uploads if this happens!

[19-Jan-2004] ONLINE SHOP ERRORS FIXED
We've been aware of problems purchasing from the online shop recently - we're pleased to announce these have now been fixed and the shop should now be working again! Also, the 'Not Frantik' chillout album is now only £1.99 instead of £2.99...

[07-Jan-2004] LOADS OF NEW AND REMASTERED MP3s ONLINE
We've now got loads of new tracks online for you to enjoy... and some favourites remastered. Two new tracks ('Point Blank' and 'Freshen Up') from a new artist, The Toucan, bring UK breakbeat to Toucan Music. 'Freshen Up' was only finished on 5th January and it's already online! Redmann has released a new track 'Get Here' and there's also a harder remix available to download. 'Embrace' (2002) has also been remastered, and Redmann's working on a new chillout track 'Time On Our Hands' which should be online later this year.
Space Invaderz have remastered 'Science Fiction' (2001) and 'Robot Wars' (2002) - both the extended DJ friendly mixes - which are now online, along with a new track 'Syntax'. The DJ friendly version of 'Science Fiction' has never been available online before. Excelsior's Why Not (1999) has also been remastered.
Dreamworld's 'Friday Lunchtime' (1997), 'Prismattack' (1997, originally online as 'Bass Attack') and 'The Myth' (1998) have been remastered for 2004 and are back online for the first time since 2002. 'Friday Lunchtime' is now available to download free of charge for the first time ever.
Finally, for those looking for something a little less frenetic, a new chillout mix of Marc Burt's 'Turbulence' is also now available. Check out our Latest Tunes page for up to date info...

[02-Jan-2004] 2003 CHARTS REVEALED - SPACE INVADERZ SCOOP TOP PLACES...
The statistics have been downloaded, the figures analysed and we can reveal that Space Invaderz were officially the most successful Frantik (or Toucan!) act in 2003, with 'Music Is The Key' topping the download chart, and the 2002 remix of 'Friction' topping the percentage chart. The most played track in 2003 was 'Your Smile' by Dreamworld - originally written in 1997 and still proving a popular tune six years on!
'Friction' broke an unusual record - it was the first track to get a higher figure of downloads than plays, and topped the percentage chart with 105% - it's been checked out and it seems it's not a mistake!
2003 tracks have also done well - remember, they're at a disadvantage in the download and preview plays charts, because they haven't been online all year to gather the figures. 'Music Is The Key' had the most downloads despite not arriving online until February 2003, and DJ Rise's 'Insane' charted 5th even though it wasn't online until May 2003.
There's not an official listener chart for the first time since 1995 - it is felt this is no longer relevant now we get listeners from all over the world.
And now some good news for everyone involved at Frantik (or Toucan!) - our preview and download figures were both up for 2003! The number of plays we received in total was 50% up on 2002, thanks to Soundclick listeners. Mathematicians may have noticed that our percentage statistics are largely down on 2002 - this is due to increased performance on Soundclick, where we get less downloads than Vitaminic... So thanks to everyone who's listened and downloaded in 2003, and there'll be plenty more tracks online soon for 2004!

[02-Jan-2004] REDMANN TRACKS REMOVED
'Move Harder', 'Turn The Corner' and 'Zero Gravity' - three older Redmann tracks - have been removed from Soundclick and are no longer available free online. But if you've missed your chance to download these tracks don't worry! They are all available on the 'Parallels' album which is still for sale. The reason for this is that Redmann's new track 'Get Here' will soon be online, with a hard dance remix... watch this space!