Just arrived, fresh from the Amorphous Androgynous (aka Future Sound of London) is a, frankly mind-melting, 17 minute remix of ‘The Illectrik Hoax’, a track from the album, featuring Natural Self on vocals. This has been in the pipeline for a while and they initially started work on a version of ‘GIANT’ but changed direction and so a three part Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remix of the Hoax has been born. To say that they’ve thrown everything into it is an understatement, after a manic version of the original they proceed to tear it apart and reassemble fragments of it in two new versions.

Not only that but 2econd Class Citizen has also created what can only be described as an ambient acoustic version of the same track, completely different but brilliant in its simplicity. As soon as I heard it I realised it was perfect for the planetarium shows next week and it will get its premiere there. As to when these will be available and on what formats, I’ll get back to you on that but we’re looking at sometime in April.

My forthcoming album is now up for pre-order on iTunes – UK store link / US store link. 12 tracks plus a pdf booklet with it. The Ninja shop has the regular CD, limited book/ flexi disc / CD package, regular mp3 and WAV versions and an exclusive Expanded and Extended version in 24 bit WAV format up for pre-order also.

Just got word from Japan: The new album, complete with two bonus tracks and Solid Psyche Mix CD, is available at Tower Records branches and Qetic Store.

Tower branches that should have it are: Shibuya / Shinjuku / Akihabara / Ikebukuro / Sapporo Pivot / Yokohama More’s / Nagoya Parco / Nagoya Kintetsu Passe / Umeda Osaka Maru building / Namba / Umeda NU Chaya / Kobe / Kyoto / Hiroshima / Fukushima and also online at Tower on a first come first served basis.

The album is out in Japan, as of Dec 3rd actually, the reason for an early release is to do with trying to encourage people to buy domestic products rather than imports (which aren’t as expensive in comparison to over here). It’s formatted for a jewel case and some of the artwork is different as well as the inclusion of two bonus tracks – ‘Beast of Prey’ (an instrumental of ‘Prey’) and ‘All Covered in Darkness pt.2′. The latter track is a new version and this will be the only place to get either of these on a physical release, with ‘Beast of Prey’ unavailable anywhere else.

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The great tradition of ‘bonus tracks for Japan’ is another incentive for people to buy western product in the east and copies usually make their way back west at hugely inflated prices. I checked Tower and HMV in Japan and both had the CD for sale, also someone tipped me off that Google Chrome will translate the pages into any language of your choice if you use that browser. Selected independent stores should have a free ‘Solid Psyche’ mix CD bundled with the album as another incentive to buy which I’ve tinkered with and added to from the mix I did late last year for Solid Steel.

Last week we hid 5 different parts of ‘Magpie Music’, the track I did with 2econd Class Citizen, around the web on different sites and encouraged people to find them with their search engines.

Thanks to all the sites who took part – Clash music, Seeks music, ireallylovemusic and Future sequence and please have a look round them as they are all worthwhile places for new music. Here are those segments now, a few had trouble with Friday’s download but they got there in the end.

Part 1 “Finders Keepers”

Part 2 “They Turned Their Faces Down”

Part 3 “A Positive No”

Part 4 “Eye of the Needle”

Part 5 “No More Stars”