Tycho Brahe News

sex rocket video teaser

2012-02-22T20:03:00.002+10:00

Well, it's early days yet - but we here at Tycho Central are absolutely thrilled to be able to show you a tiny glimpse of the video currently under construction for Sex Rocket!

Conceived by Lego stop motion wunderkind ForlornCreature, and filmed in glorious HD, the Sex Rocket video is going to take you for a ride - until you're satisfied!

Click on the picture at left for a sneak preview :-)

remix rocket

2012-01-31T23:37:00.010+10:00

A quick update on what's happening...

We're working our way towards a single release for our ridiculous yet quite good song "Sex Rocket", with a possible launch (pun subconciously intended) gig in April. We have the song in regular flavour, 12 inch mix, remix by Dave Foreman (Tankt), remix by Neuropa, and a couple of other remixes which I shouldn't talk about until they're completed. T-shirt designs are complete. A stop motion Lego video is being made, it will have lots of visual innuendo, the plan is to get it screened on Rage. There will be fun.

Meanwhile I'm finishing up another unofficial Human League remix for a Danish website, recording a song I wrote just prior to last year's flood called "Only Rock 'n' Roll", and contemplating some new songs for the live set. Busy busy busy!

personalised tycho body art

2012-01-05T11:08:00.003+10:00

We had a great time playing at Uber on New Year's Eve, our first gig with the new 4 piece line-up with Sam on keys and bass. The planned Sex Rocket T-shirts were not yet available so in lieu some impromptu body art was added to the very accommodating Sonja Matthews! I have now decided that all future T-shirt plans will be cancelled, instead we will have a booth at our gigs so that I can personally draw body art on any lovely ladies requiring it ;-)

new year's eve gig

2011-12-29T17:28:00.002+10:00

Faith takes over the entire top floor of Uber Nightclub, 100 Boundary Rd, West End, this Saturday 31st December (New Year's Eve) where we'll be playing with Feline Down. This will be a special occasion for us, as it will be the first show as the full four-piece band with newest member Sam Morrison. Should make for an interesting night, since Stephen and Sam are also both in Feline Down! Doors open at 9pm, be there with us to welcome the future!

facebook and the tycho martini!

2011-11-27T22:25:00.005+10:00

If you haven't already seen, or if you just avoid social networks, there's now a Tycho Brahe Facebook page. This will be (for the foreseeable future) the principal means of sporadic band updates, in conjunction with the Tycho site right here of course, which will be used for more major announcements!

Visit the Tycho facebook page now for updates on what's happening with Tycho right now, or at least, errrrm, just then. There's also a bunch of photos from our gigs with Psyche, the infamous "Schmoozing with Tycho" photo album is slowly being migrated there from Myspace, and you can access our online Music Store to preview (and/or buy) *almost* every and any Tycho recording ever released!

And don't miss this - snuck onto the Tycho site recently under the heading of "about" was the official band cocktail - the Tycho Martini. Guaranteed to get you through the most gruelling hexadecimal programming session ;-)

Cheers indeed!

espy gig with psyche

2011-11-16T00:36:00.003+10:00

Wow, what an amazing night we had at The Espy on Saturday! We absolutely love playing Melbourne, and catching up with all our friends there. Some of the night's highlights included Psyche's Darrin Huss doing guest vocals on 'Tainted Love/Dr Who', Ken doing guest vocals on Psyche's cover of Yazoo's 'Situation', 3:30am bacon and eggs, and no sleep whatsoever until we boarded the plane back to Brisbane at 6am Sunday morning!

When we've fully recovered a full report will be put together for the events & tours page.

tycho + psyche - melbourne saturday nov 12th @ the espy

2011-11-07T08:56:00.006+10:00

On very short notice we will be playing a show with our good mates Psyche this Saturday November 12th, in the Basement at iconic Melbourne venue, The Espy. Doors open 9:30pm, entry is FREE.

Our gig with Psyche here in Brisbane went off like the proverbial frog in a sock, so if you can get there, do NOT miss this show!

Click on the picture at left for details or go here - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=183490208401586

halloween gig - new date, new member, psyche support

2011-10-23T22:34:00.008+10:00

Due to a number of external circumstances we have sadly been forced to cancel our appearance at the Globe on Friday...

But don't despair - Tycho Brahe WILL be playing live this SATURDAY 29th Oct at Faith's Halloween Night at St Paul's Tavern, corner of Leichardt and Wharf St, Spring Hill, opening for Canadian/German synthpop legends Psyche!

Stephen can't make it to this show, however we are very pleased to announce that this gig will mark the debut appearance of Tycho's new member, Sam Morrison, on keyboards and bass guitar. Sam fills the void left by the departure of Andy earlier this year, and if you've ever wanted to see two bass guitars onstage at the same time, this is your chance!

Full details can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Faith-Nightclub/110871274653#!/event.php?eid=266806060025561

tycho halloween gig

2011-10-15T11:44:00.001+10:00

Heads Up! Halloween gig! Tycho Brahe. At the Globe, Fortitude Valley. Friday 28th October. With our new-wavish electro mates Trip Sinister, plus supports. More details to follow asap - please support us on this one!

bloodlust wrapup and goodbye andy

2011-09-11T21:53:00.011+10:00

Two weeks ago saw the first public Tycho gig for over two years when we headlined the Bloodlust Ball/ Prometheus Bound event at St Paul’s Tavern – and after the horrendous start to the year I have to say it was a fantastic feeling to be back on a stage. We played this show as a two piece, the first time Georgina and I have done so since around 1998, which meant we could do a few different things that don’t comfortably fit the four piece format. This included resurrecting a late ‘90s cover version of Blue Monday, and performing our remixed version of Real Life’s “Imperfection”, I even got a turn on the keytar for that one. We also unveiled a brand new song, “Sex Rocket”, complete with live vocodered vocals and cowbells, which went off!

The event itself was fantastic, a great night which captured the flavour of the Bloodlust Ball events of the ‘90s, which we played at in ‘97 and ‘98. There were some great photos taken of the night by Silveraya Photography, including the photos of Georgina and myself that you can see here (used with permission). Check out other photos from Bloodlust on Silveraya’s Facebook page, and also take a look at the Silveraya Photography website, I love some of the portrait work there, especially the green goth girl!

As mentioned previously, after 8 years Andy has decided to leave Tycho. He has been a huge contributor to the band, not only in the live arena, but also as a songwriter, giving us such great songs as Don’t Feel That Way (the video of which got us our first TV airplay on the ABC’s Rage), Metropolis, Loveless, and Another Useless Photograph. Andy’s company and insane sense of humour will be missed within the band, however it’s an amicable departure, and I’m sure we’ll see him at a Tycho gig sometime. Andy also went above and beyond through January’s flood crisis, and the aftermath, not only helping us evacuate through the night of January 12, but also assisting with demolition of the house (he’s better with a keytar than with an angle grinder BTW) and with moving furniture and belongings. Andy – thanks for everything mate, the story of Tycho is richer from your outstanding contributions.

From Andy:

Being in Tycho Brahe over the last 8 years has been a wonderful time for me and it has been a lot of fun. It has been with a heavy heart that I made the decision that I would bow out. I know I'll never be in a band as tight or as great sounding. I leave with some really good memories of the last 8 years…I will miss the interstate tours as they were very enjoyable and it is nice to leave a few well produced tunes on the landscape to become part of Tycho folklore.

I wish you all the best for the future and I honestly wish Tycho absolute success (whatever that is these days)…I might even get to the odd gig to get a punters view of the band. All the best. Andrew Walls (ex-keytarist)

bloodlust ball 2011

2011-08-23T23:52:00.004+10:00

Well folks it has been a while – a very long while - but this Saturday 27th August we are playing a set at St Paul’s Tavern as part of the event “Bloodlust Ball 2011 + Prometheus Bound”. Tycho Central is still only partially reconstructed after the January flood disaster, so we’re operating under some duress, hence the late notice…we weren’t 100% convinced that we’d actually be able to pull this one together!

It will be a reduced lineup for this show, as drummer Stephen has a previous commitment to be onstage with Felinedown in Sydney at around the same time. Also, earlier this year, Andy decided that he’d had enough of our wild rock’n’roll excesses, and hung up his keytar. We will be posting a proper farewell statement for Andy on the website in the near future.

So this Saturday, it’s back to how it all began – ye olde 2 piece lineup, Ken & Georgina, which I don’t think we’ve done since 1998! Laptop karaoke…? Hmmm, maybe. Nevertheless, the 2 piece format affords us the chance to do a few different things, which we may never do ever again, especially as a full 4 piece band. Could be interesting…

Full details can be found here: www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=189904681068976

martin rushent rip

2011-06-06T23:05:00.002+10:00

Terribly sad news today. Martin Rushent, producer, has died at age 63.

In his earlier days Martin famously worked as an engineer on records for Shirley Bassey, David Essex, Fleetwood Mac and even T-Rex. But it was in the late '70s/ early '80s that he truly made his mark upon the world. Amongst his producer credits are records by the Buzzcocks/ Pete Shelley, Stranglers, Generation X (which spawned Billy Idol), XTC, Altered Images, The Associates, The Go-Go's, some early Joy Division, Australia's Do Re Mi...and of course, The Human League, including the album 'Dare', and it's groundbreaking instrumental remix companion album 'Love and Dancing'.

The Human League's 'Dare" + New Order's 'Blue Monday' = Tycho Brahe.

Remove either of those releases from the equation and I would never have been so inspired by music to become an active participant. Dare contained great songs, but the production which sent it through the roof to achieve sales of around 20 million copies was 100% Rushent.

Unfortunately I never got to meet Martin, but did have some communication with him. Note that on our Transatlantic album, the opening track is "It's Not Enough (Extended Martinesque Mix)". The remix style was based on Martin's pioneering dub mix work in the early '80s, and named somewhat obtusely in his honour (with Martin's approval). From Martin's emails (which I still have of course): "Sounds really good you guys have a severe 80's head on - v nice indeed will spread the word. stay in touch, martin." And, "I'm very flattered and u can call it whatever u like including martinwhatever so long as u are happy it wont damage sales !!"

And, I did indeed stay in touch from time to time, and he seemed to be a lovely guy, in addition to being a true pioneering genius.

RIP Martin, and thankyou.

Ken

how you can help rebuild tycho central...

2011-02-25T22:39:00.011+10:00

There are currently two separate fundraising activities put together by fellow musicians, which will directly contribute funds to assist in the rebuilding of Tycho Central and our house.

If you are a fan of synthpop and electro, check out the exclusive Parralox Flood Relief Megamix, click on the picture at left or go to http://www.parralox.com/floodrelief/

For those who prefer their music a little more to the industrial side of things, check out the awesome "Surge & Subside" compilation (right) put together by label Aphotic Audio, featuring acts such as Assemblage 23, Psyche, Angelspit, Empty, Angeltheory and many, many more... http://surgesubside.com/

We here at Tycho wish to sincerely thank all those in the music community who have given so generously of their time and creativity, to assist us in this very difficult time.

tycho back online

2011-02-02T01:08:00.007+10:00

After two weeks of reliance on public wi-fi we now finally have internet access restored in the temporary Tycho lodgings. As stated earlier, the house and studio went under in the floods that recently hit Brisbane. Pictured is what is left of Tycho Central, after it was submerged under 4 metres of water on January 12 - 13. The ceiling has collapsed, the brown stuff is mud. I've posted a 'before' photo as a comparison. We saved everything except the benches and racking you see here, wall mounted speakers and amp, curtains, some shelving around the corner and three power boards. We will get back up, but it will take some time.

tycho central flooded

2011-01-19T07:14:00.002+10:00

All Tycho activities are currently on hold as the house and the studio went underwater in the recent Brisbane floods. All equipment, masters, files, etc were saved, and have been safely relocated, although all the equipment mounting and racking, and the rehearsal amp/speakers were lost. This will all obviously be a considerable setback. If you wish to assist with the rebuilding of the studio, I would suggest that you visit http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/TychoBrahe1 and make a purchase, most of the money from sales at CD Baby flows directly through to us. Thankyou for your interest and support, Ken.

new download only EP

2010-11-18T01:05:00.005+10:00

There's no such thing as a free lunch, right? Well, maybe not, but something that definitely is free is the digital download only new EP from Tycho Brahe, "...what you paid for".

Scheduled for digital release exclusively on CD Baby, "...what you paid for" was recorded live in the studio on 25th August 2010.

The concept: place Tycho Brahe in a recording studio and have the band perform a selection of songs live, just as they would at a gig, so the live energy can be captured in a controlled environment for posterity.

The reality: the same lack of control applies, and before we know it we're dealing with poor sound monitoring, equipment breakdowns, microphone spill and general confusion.

The truth: You get what you paid for... We did. Did you?

The five songs on the EP represent a couple of band favourites, a cover for a good friend, and some requests from the eternally patient long term die hard fans of Tycho. To you, we shout “Thankyou!” This is for you.

Tracklist: Dislocation/ Lovesong/ Delos/ Sentence/ In Your Heart/ Earlier that evening...

Cost: $0.00

Available: CD Baby on December 1st (US time)

tycho schmoozes with peter hook and the light

2010-10-01T00:30:00.003+10:00

On Monday 27th September Georgina and Ken found themselves in the company of one Mr Peter Hook, after his show at The Tivoli performing Joy Division songs with band The Light. This was followed with drinks until the wee hours of the morning, chatting with members of the band including Hooky's son Jack, who was celebrating his 21st birthday.

Expect photos to be added to the Schmoozing With Tycho album on Myspace soon, but in the meantime if you want some light entertainment Ken has posted a rather ranty blog about some of the criticism levelled at Hook and Co on the current tour (click on the photo at left).

update from tycho central

2010-09-11T00:12:00.002+10:00

A quick update on what's happening in Tycho land...from the outside it probably looks like nothing's going on, but...

A couple of weeks ago we booked a short session in a local studio, and recorded a handful of tracks live! These will be released as a free downloadable EP in the near future. The recordings are quite raw, and a bit rough around the edges, and that was the point - to capture the live feel of the band. The working title of this EP is "What You Paid For". Think about it ;-)

The next studio album seems to be taking forever...and that would be because it is! Progress is slow due to time constraints, but the quality of the productions completed so far is excellent. There's actually well over an album's worth of recordings in the pipeline, it may come down to selecting songs which work best together and releasing the others separately.

A great deal of time was spent earlier this year refurbishing and rewiring the Tycho Room, now renamed "Tycho Central". With the transformation now complete, a photographic project has begun to document the studio contents and update the Tycho "Gear List" page on the website into a more visual interactive experience. There may even be a few demos of the vintage gear linked from the page to Youtube - it will be nice to share some info on this quirky old equipment with you all.

Amongst all of this I've also been making use of the gear at Tycho Central and recorded a few new demos. One of these is titled "Only Rock 'n' Roll" and is one of the strongest songs I've written - it should make it onto the next album.

There's also talk of a gig in Melbourne early next year with a couple of other great Australian electronic acts - but more on that later...

Cheers, Ken.

avarice special k video

2010-08-20T00:05:00.005+10:00

Avarice (Special K Stompy Edit) has just been uploaded to Youtube, accompanied by graphics created in Blender by Francis Tohill, subtly re-edited by yours truly. These graphics were originally created as the background projection for the Don't Feel That Way video, but they work rather nicely against the Special K mix. Favourite parts here at Tycho Central are Francis' mesmerising "roller coaster in hell", derived from the Atlantic trident logo, and the bizarre "bignose" character - are you looking at the front, or the back...? Awesome work Francis!

View the video by clicking on the picture or here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkgM6YGHDCg

The Special K Stompy mixes were an exercise in remixing a Tycho song in the style of some of the early noughties remixers such as Felix Da Housecat, and Digweed & Muir. Plus it was always a personal twisted ambition of mine to create a listenable remix that ran to 10 minutes - the full Avarice Special K Stompy Club Mix ran to 10:37 and the TB303 positively screams at the end of the track. The instrumental beds for the mixes were recorded "live" in the studio, with all the synths, samplers and drum machines running from a Cubase sequencer, with manual audio mixing and synth manipulation on the fly. Precarious stuff! Vocals were dubbed on later.

The Avarice CD single sold out of physical copies long ago, however it remains available in download format on CD Baby, where you can grab the entire 4 track single for a measly US$3.00, or on iTunes for a bit more. The single features the Delos XX50 Rejoined Mix, the Avarice Special K Stompy Edit, and Avarice demo (recorded live to tape in the Tycho Room) which were all exclusive to the single release, whilst the full Club Mix also resurfaced later as a bonus track on the Atlantic album.

Stay tuned for some interesting developments in the very near future...

throwaway fashion video

2010-08-06T00:31:00.006+10:00

A video is now available on Youtube for Throwaway Fashion. The song was written and originally performed by long lost fellow Brisbane band Sphere - and featured some synth programming courtesy of yours truly, and samples from a shampoo commercial!

Resurrected by Tycho for the 2006 album Atlantic, it's a nice little tune about supermodels...you can watch the video by clicking on the picture at left or here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GAwEnkRw7U

The video is cut together from footage from the TransCom "Sumner" Powerhouse gig, and the video projection material that Francis put together for the event.

more tycho on youtube

2010-07-30T00:57:00.004+10:00

It would appear that someone, I would not know who, has got their hands on the rear projection footage that Francis did for "Delos" at Transcom's Bernard Sumner event a couple of years ago. They've re-edited it a little, and married it up with the 'XX50 Rejoined' version of Delos from the Avarice CD single.

Of course, we here at Tycho Central would never sanction such a thing, as it is comprised solely of footage from the uber-classic sci-fi techno-thriller movie, Westworld, and we don't exactly have the rights to that.

Having said that, give it a look. It's a way cool movie, set in the futuristic resort "Delos", where "nothing can go wrong" - except for the unstoppable psychopathic robot gunslinger Yul Brynner! Penned by the late Michael Crichton (famously responsible for Jurassic Park), this movie gave the instrumental song a name and identity.

Click here or on the photo to see it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UaPEHDvYc

us college radio airplay

2010-07-02T00:42:00.003+10:00

Tycho has recently been receiving some airplay on US college radio station WTSR FM in Trenton, New Jersey.

Every Tuesday between 4pm and 8pm the long-running show Transmission Control features electronic alternative music: synthpop, electropop, darkwave, industrial, EBM, and everything in between.

If my calculations are correct, that would be between 6am and 10am on Thursday, Eastern Standard Time, in Australia. The station also streams on the electric interweb and can be heard here: http://wtsr.org/

compilations page up

2010-06-25T09:25:00.003+10:00

The releases section of the site has been expanded to include the many compilations that Tycho has contributed to, from all around the planet - Japan, US, France, Germany... there's likely been a release or two missed, so if you know of any compilation that Tycho is on that isn't listed drop us an email at theband(at)tycho.com.au and we'll send you a lollie for your trouble :-)

tycho spotting

2010-06-14T15:08:00.006+10:00

Here at Tycho Central we're recovering from playing a full two sets for a private function last night, at Brisbane's Bar Soma. A nice crowd in a good venue, and a lot of fun to perform again after a lengthy break. Maybe we should get out more often, eh?

Pictured at left is Tycho's one time roadie, now pro photographer, Mr Angus Young, displaying his sense of fashion *and* geography in this savvy rockster pose, somewhere in Sweden!

This photo has been added to the Myspace album "Tycho T Shirt", which also features the lovely Mil Clayton modelling her Tycho wear on Mt Kilimanjaro. If anyone else has any cool Tycho travel photos out there, please be sure to send them in our direction, we'd love to see more of this!

tycho youtube channel

2010-06-09T00:05:00.004+10:00

Ok folks, here at Tycho Central we've decided to finally get off our butts and start making use of all the archival stuff we have.

Which is why you can now find some never before seen video of Tycho, live, on Youtube. For starters we have '1985', live in Melbourne from our Human League support gig; 'Delos', from Under The Blue Moon in Sydney; and our very straight cover version of New Order's 'Bizarre Love Triangle', from Transcom's Bernard Sumner tribute night at the Powerhouse here in Brisbane. More video will be added as we trawl through years of footage! Funny - I still seem to have the same haircut :-/

http://www.youtube.com/user/TychoBraheVideo