Soundcloud, Myspace and Facebook

mistrust star

There’s a lot of good music on Soundcloud these days, and it makes me wonder whether your average music lover is heading over there to listen to their favourite band and find their latest tracks, rather than going to Myspace. When I first started putting my own music online, it was Myspace where I got all the plays and all the messages from other musicians and potential fans. Now very few people play my tracks on Myspace, and I get all my comments and feedback on the tunes on Soundcloud, and all the chat and other interaction with listeners on Facebook.

I guess it’s that Facebook is so popular and pretty instantaneous that it’s more likely to attract people to comment on my music and the things I’m upto. Myspace just seems like a drag to get access to music these days. Although it’s been streamlined recently, with new themes and stuff like that, most of the band pages still take ages to load because they’re crammed with Youtube videos and silly little gadgets that you don’t really care about. No-one posts comments on there about my music anymore – they’re just posting links to their own new release. I don’t mind it when bands and artists I know quite well do that, but when people I ‘ve never heard of post links, I think twice about allowing the comments. Grumpy old me!

So, it looks like Facebook for interaction; Soundcloud for hosting my tunes, and Myspace for ‘erm…..

Talking of Soundcloud, I’m eternally grateful to the person or persons who are still playing my version of Happy Birthday. It’s had over 600 plays in 5 months, which isn’t a lot by most people’s standards, but it’s still a boost. The track that was featured by Future Music magazine in August, Half Past One, is also doing quite well too – over 200 plays so far and some great comments. Have a listen to Happy Birthday and Half Past One here if you’ve missed them…

Happy Birthday by mistrust

I was planning to release a “mistrust remixes” EP this Autumn. Nothing major, just something on Bandcamp or somewhere, that would feature some of the remixes I’ve done for other people over the last couple of years. However, I’ve had to put the release back until early 2011, as Big Chill have released “Earplay: The Remixes”, by Animat, which happens to feature my remix of their track “Deep Space Lament”, so it’s not too disappointing after all! You can buy the EP on Amazon, iTunes, and loads of other places.  You can play it here too….

Animat – Earplay:The Remixes by theonlym

Talking of Soundcloud, I don’t usually plug other people’s music on my own website, but I just thought I’d give a nod to a couple of people: someone who I’ve only recently “met” online, and someone who was a big help in giving me plug on the Electromancer music site when I first put my music on the internet. These are Steve Cooke and Tokyohunter, both of whom are well worth a listen…..

More mistrust news soon….

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Popcorn Slavery and Deep Space Lament remixes

Waveform Transmissions Volume 3

Waveform Transmissions 3 cd cover

Popcorn Slavery (mistrust remix), the remix I did for International Observer earlier this year, is out on 14th September on Waveform Transmissions Volume 3 (label: Waveform Records). It’s available in CD and download formats, and can be ordered direct from Waveform’s website or places like Amazon and iTunes. It’s great news for me because the remix was released earlier this year on International Observer’s Popcorn Slavery EP, and it’s now been licensed to Waveform in the USA.

This is the full track listing for Waveform Transmissions Volume 3

Hope Sick (dub mix) (5:10)
by Tiger Mendoza
Nowhere (live rerub) (8:33)
…by Warp Technique
Emotion Trakker (6:57)
by Stress Assasin
Just One More (8:45)
by Bluey
Deep Blue (8:16)
by Third Ear Audio
High (6:04)
by Doof
Long Ride to Fargo (9:59)
by The Push
Harmonia (Subset remix) (7:25)
by Pitch Black
In Control Dub (7:07)
by Jah Acid Dub
Popcorn Slavery
(mistrust remix) (5:54)
by International Observer

Release date 14th September 2010

You can also listen to clips of all the tracks on Waveform’s website.

Read the review of Waveform Transmissions Volume 3 on the Psyreviews website.

Earplay- The Remixes (Animat)

earplay - the remixes

This announcement from Animat….

“Big Chill Recordings have compiled the Animat remix EPs ‘Riverbed Road’ and ‘Deep Space Lament’ into an album, also featuring bonus previously unreleased mixes of ‘Earplay’ and ‘The Closer You Get’. The album is out today, available through Amazon, Beatport, i-tunes and all good download outlets.

Full track listing:

1. Riverbed Road (Animat Radio Mix)
2. Riverbed Road (Laroca Remix)
3. Riverbed Road (Santa Cruz Muzique Remix)
4. Riverbed Road (Echaskech Remix)
5. Riverbed Road (Winter North Atlantic Remix)
6. Deep Space Lament (Animat Radio Mix)
7. Deep Space Lament (Leggobeast Remix)
8. Deep Space Lament (Foundwaves Remix)
9. Deep Space Lament (Mistrust Remix)
10. Deep Space Lament (Sleeping Robots Remix)
11. Earplay (The Only Michael’s Ambient Remix)
12. The Closer You Get (Sleeping Robots Good Man Remix)

As you can see, my “mistrust” remix is track number 1o! You can download the whole album or individual tracks (especially mine!) on Amazon, Beatport etc….

10 things I learned this week

Ten things I’ve learned this week:

1. For some reason, Yahoo wants to access my Facebook chat, in return for allowing me to share my Flickr photos on my Facebook profile.

2. The Akai LPK-25 mini midi controller keyboard will come in very handy if your playing technique is a good as mine!

3. Someone in Turkey likes my song Happy Birthday and plays it a lot.

4. Ron Bowes has suddenly become very famous.

5. A lot of people are still looking for the answer to “How can I embed Soundcloud in my WordPress blog.” If you’re still looking, try here.

6. I just can’t find the right theme for my blog. However, The Revolt WordPress theme is just what I’ve been looking for!

7. I never ever thought that I’d be able to hold a real copy of Tubeway Army (aka The Blue Album) in my hands. Ok, so it’s a re-release, and not one of the originals, but at least I have it at last.

8. I Really need to start another Soundcloud profile or at least update my current one to include all the “I will never finish these tracks” that are sitting on my hard drive.

9. I now have enough tracks for a “mistrust remix” EP. Thanks to Jasper at Dubmission for the suggestion. However, it may or may not included Warp Technique’s “Nowhere Dub (mistrust remix)”.

10. Having a Reverbnation account sounded like a good idea at the time. I like the idea of all of those nice little widgets, but if I can’t be bothered to upload some tracks, what good are they?

11. I’m not very photogenic, so here’s a picture of my dog instead:

This is my dog

Future Music Magazine Readers Demo Hot Pick!

mistrust's x-board25 midi controller keyboard
look at my e-mu xboard 25 keyboard controller!

Here’s the review of my track “Half Past One”, which was one of the Hot Picks in the readers’ demo section of this month’s Future Music magazine:

“Time now for a little intrigue and mystery. Just what is this track all about? Look man, don’t hassle me! Just go with the flow! Y’dig? We dig.

It’s an intriguing and hypnotic rambling and meandering tune that gathers pace and changes mood as it freewheels along apparently under its own steam.  The reverby toy piano ties things together and while the guitars at the end  feel inevitable they’re most welcome and their introduction is like a special treat for riding along thus far.

Love the mix. It’s very polite and everything is just ‘there’. It’s a great way to close and album, we reckon. Or better still, how about a whole concept album of similarly rambling experiments. Sweet. “

So, there we are. If you want to listen to “Half Past One” and decide for yourself, it’s on my Soundcloud music player on the right of this page, or you can click the link here to go directly to my Soundcloud page:

mistrust on Soundcloud

If you’re member of Souncloud, you can also leave a comment, or just start following me….

By the way, the review is reproduced by kind permission of Future Music Magazine (c) 2010.  It’s in Issue number 229, August 2010. If you’ve got the magazine yourself, have a look at it on page 116. There’s even some proper photos of me and my amazing studio set up!!!

Photos to follow….

Social mistrust

In this post: Popcorn Slavery remix licensed, Half Past One surprise, and changes to my Facebook profile, Humanizer get signed, and Animat’s live rescore….This is me blurred...

Hello again, dear Reader! I was in the middle of writing about some of my thoughts on less obvious was of promoting your music, when I got a couple of bits of exciting news on the music-front. First of all, I was told that my remix of International Observer’s Popcorn Slavery has been licensed to a record label in the USA. So far, the track has only been out on download stores as part of International Observer’s Popcorn Slavery EP. Not sure how it will be released on the US label, whether it’ll be on a compilation or something. I’ve been told that it’ll be out in September 2010.

Half Past One. Not the time I’m writing this, but the title of my latest MP3. The other good news I’ve had this week is that Half Past One is also going to be licensed. Well, sort of licensed. Someone’s asked me if they can feature the track. More news to come…I’ve been I’m planning to put it out on an EP later this year, but at the moment it’s available for a short time on Soundcloud.

Not sure whether anyone reading this is on Facebook, but if you are, you can read my blog posts from inside my Facebook profile and “band” page. I’ve added Facebook application called Social RSS, which like the title suggests, lets you add an RSS feed to your Facebook profile. So, if you’re on Facebook, why not join in at Facebook.com/mistrustmusic and look for the Blog/RSS tab.

I’ve recently done a remix for some friends of mine in a band called Humanizer. They’re from Manchester (UK) and have finally got a record deal after working really hard to get a name for themselves, especially on the live scene. They’ve signed to Peter Hook’s Hacienda Records (he of New Order fame). The remix is of track is an unreleased demo called “The Manifesto is over” and it’s on my Soundcloud player. You can catch up with Humanizer on their Myspace page.

Finally, a plug for another friend. If you’re in the north of England on Saturday 19th June, then you could always go and watch Animat doing a live rescore for film “The Last Man on Earth” at The Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds.  More info here. In case you haven’t heard of The Last Man on Earth, you’ve probably heard of Will Smith’s remake of it, “I am Legend”. You can hear my remix of Animat’s Deep Space Lament on Soundcloud….

Thanks for reading!

On the radio

In the last week  I’ve had my very first interview on the radio, and my kids made some “well done” messages for me….

my kids did these pics for me!
my kids did these pics for me when I was on the radio!

Those nice folk at Chorlton Arts Radio, part of the Chorlton Arts Festival in Manchester, UK, invited me onto one of their shows last Friday evening. My very first radio interview! I was quite relaxed about it all a few hours before I arrived at the studio, but then the nerves hit me! Needless to say, I was still nervous when I went on air! You can actually hear how nervous I sounded on this clip that Mrs B recorded. Should make a nice remix with all those ummms and errrs!

Thankfully I settled down a bit and got into it a bit better. Thanks to Paul Holloway who interviewed me and put me a bit more at my ease, especially when he was suggesting that I should do some gigs! He played Dubcrazy and my new tune Half Past One and we had a good chat about the remixes I’ve been doing for International Observer and Pitch Black, and he played the Rude Mechanicals remix I did for Pitch Black.

I’d love to do some more interviews now I’ve done my first, and I’m seriously considering doing some live work. Not sure how I’m going to get something together, as I’m still just using a laptop and a few vst plugins to make my tracks. Any suggestions or tips are welcome!

Here’s the radio interview in full, along with the tracks that were played…

Tim B (mistrust) interview on Chorlton Arts Radio by mistrustmusic

Updated: Thanks to Ben Barden who reminded me that people can’t give me any advice if comments are turned off! Ben, you’ll be pleased to know, comments are allowed now!!!

Spam me not

Since I’ve started up this new version of my blog, I’ve found that I’m getting more spam comments than the old one. However, I’m not sure why anyone would want to use my website to promote their DVDs, shoes, or any other product, when they can find a bigger following on someone else’s site. They obviously think I’m some megastar musician with loads of blog readers and a million fans! All the time they’re spending posting messages on my blog could be spent promoting their wares somewhere else, where there are loads more readers. I’m sorry to tell all you spammers out there who are thinking of posting messages on here, that it’s not really worth it. I’m just an unsigned musician trying to blog about my music and my life, and I don’t really get many readers on here. Sorry to disappoint you.

So, dear Spammer, f you want to make yourself useful while you’re reading this post, why not upload some of my songs to file-sharing sites for me and save me the trouble of doing it. I’m sure you’ve got loads of contacts in the file-sharing world, and loads of contacts on their who like to get their MP3s for free.  You never know, when I become a rich and famous musician, you’ll already have the edge on all of the other illegal file-sharers!

Try these….

mistrust – Dubcrazy

mistrust – Croydon Library

mistrust – Castaway

ConDem Nation

So, the United Kingdom has a new Government. A new start, or so we’re told. New beginnings, and all that nonsense. The wags in the media as using the title “ConDem” for the new coalition between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, and others have suggested that we’re now living in “ConDem Nation”. I know that the recent Labour government messed things up, but I’m seriously concerned about the forthcoming cuts and deals, and that this new ConDem-ned coalition can’t be removed unless at least 55% of MPs turn against them in a vote of no confidence. Either the LibDems were desperate to get into government any way they could, or they’ve been completely hoodwinked. It feels like a lot of us are facing total ConDemNation.

New beginnings for the United Kingdom, and new beginnings for me. Tomorrow, I officially finish working as an e-learning developer for The Manchester College. Time to move on to pastures new, as the saying goes. I’ve worked there (and it predecessor, City College Manchester) for 11 and a half years. It’s said that I’m leaving, but I have to move on. If anyone in training or education is reading this and is looking for someone to help them manage their e-learning resources or their VLE, let me know. I’m free!

My not being in work obviously has given me some time to apply for another job. It also gives me more time to spend with my wife and kids, and also my other love – music-making. In case you’re new to “mistrustmusic.co.uk”, I’m an unsigned musician, having fun making my own songs and remixing songs for other people. I say “having fun” and I mean it. I love it. I’d love to have a record deal of some sort, or play some gigs, but I’m not too hung up about it. I’ve had a fair bit of exposure so far, including making the top 30 airplay charts in New Zealand with my remix of Pitch Black’s Rude Mechanicals. I’ve also done remixes for Tom Bailey (ex-Thompson Twins) under his International Observer guise (Popcorn Slavery), and the Big Chill’s Animat, with Deep Space Lament. Having a bit of time on my hands is letting me work of my own EP, so far called “Three”, which is coming along nicely, and remixes for Warp Technique, and Manchester’s own Humanizer and Maliika.I’m looking into getting a bit of proper publicity for my EP and the remixes, so look out for more news soon.

As well as this blog, you can catch up with me and “mistrust” news on Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace. Many of my songs and remixes can be downloaded from Soundcloud or on my Facebook music page, if you’re already on those sites, or here on my blog. Most of them are free to download too!!!

Bye for now

Tim

Election 2010

Here’s something new for me….the live BBC 2010 General Election coverage. Hopefully some people will find it useful. So far (at 2215 UK Time), the exit polls are predicting a win for the Conservative Party, but not with enough of the 326 seats needed for an outright win. Anyway..here’s the live feed….

Getting a Number 1 Hit with a Facebook campaign

So, Ultravox didn’t make it to Number 1 in the UK top 40 singles charts with their single “Vienna”.  The song didn’t even reach the top 100. Did anyone think it might, especially as the song is nearly 30 years old? Well, a lot of people did, especially those people who were involved in the “Vienna for Number 1″ Facebook campaign. Lots of people downloaded the track during “campaign week”, and it actually reached Number 1 in the Play.com download charts. Quite an achievement then! So, why didn’t a song that had not one, but two, Facebook campaigns, plus support from groups on Myspace and other social networks, get into the charts?

I’m guessing here, but it looks like the whole “Facebook campaign for a number 1″ isn’t worth anything without the backing of the traditional media, whether it’s the national printed press, national radio, tv, and anywhere else that the music-buying public hear about pop music. Rage Against the Machine made it to number 1 at Christmas because their campaign took on the might of Simon Cowell and Sony BMG and generated a lot of interest in the wider media. It generated a life outside Facebook. It probably helped too that Rage Against the Machine were stablemates of Cowell’s company.

So, if you’re looking to start a Facebook campaign to get to Number 1, get the media on your side. Generate some interest outside of Facebook and get the music-buying public on your side. David versus Goliath. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not having a pop at the Ultravox campaign. I was part of that campaign and hopefully did something to spread the word. I’m glad to be part of the campaign and wish it had worked out better.

If someone would like to get my track “Dubcrazy” to Number 1 with a Facebook campaign, well I’m afraid you can’t as it’s not for sale on any download site linked to the UK charts. However, you could always start a campaign to get my remix for Pitch Black’s Rude Mechanicals (“mistrust remix”) to Number 1. It’s available from all major download stores and even got into the top 30 airplay charts in New Zealand. Now that certainly would be David against Goliath!

Vote Now

Labour? Conservative? LibDems? Nah!!! Vote Ultravox Vienna for Number 1 this week! The campaign to get Ultravox’s Vienna to Number 1 in the UK singles chart enters its final week. The song spent 4 weeks at Number 2 in 1981, beaten only by John Lennon’s Imagine and Joe Dolce’s Shaddup yer face! So why not get more information here on the official Ultravox website, or go ahead and download the song from Amazon UK or Nokia Music (register as UK-based)

If Rage Against the Machine can do it, so can Ultravox.

Vote Ultravox in 2010.

You should watch this video

Without repeating exactly what Ian Shepherd wrote on his production advice website, you should really watch this video. I can’t really write much about it that will really do it justice, so it’s probably a good idea if you just watch it first – like I did – and then see what you think about it. As Ian says on his own blog, there’s more to it than first appears. The real message will “shock, surprise and move you.”

Watch it, and then click this link to find out more….

Oh, and please visit Ian Shepherd’s Productionadvice.co.uk too.

(updated)