Despite previous optimism, due to weather-related air, road and rail problems in the UK, My DJ gig tonight in Dusseldorf is CANCELLED :( We’re in discussion with the venue about a replacement date – will let you know asap.

…Ah, but it’s always a fine state to be in, and there’s always such fine locations to do it in. Yes, that’s right, it’s another tenuously linked gig update!

First up, next Wednesday 1st December, Eric will be demonstrating what are fast becoming known as the longest arms in DJing (although he blames the “damn photographers and their fish-eye lenses”, but we know better don’t we, children?), at Pretty Vacant in Dusseldorf, who are celebrating five years of existance with four special nights. First time in Dussedorf, and first time in Germany since January, so should be pretty special!

Next up, Eric will be spinning out a stones throw away from home at The Concorde 2 in Brighton on Saturday 11th December, as part of “Open Fire”, one of those festival-in-a-club beanos, and well worth attending as all proceeds go to the local MS treatment centre. Full line up details here!

Finally, Eric’ll be heading north on Friday 17th December to Manchester, for a party underneath the brand spanking new studios of Unity Radio – Not sure of the line-up yet, but it’ll be interesting for sure, and proceeds go to Amnesty International, which is always good!

More to come, but if you’re in any of those vicinities, hope to see you soon!

PS Don’t forget we’re still after your clips and photos to make the video for “Body Jump” – See here for details!

That means YOU!

You should be well aware that we’ve been putting together videos for the entire “Uptime/Downtime” album – the project is coming along quite nicely, thanks to the sterling efforts of the directors involved, but now it’s time for YOU to help us out!

Yup, that’s right – There’s only one video left to make for “Uptime”, and that’s “Body Jump”.

Now we thought it would be a rather splendid idea, rather than edit together existing footage, that we get YOU (yes, YOU) to send us stuff, which we’ll edit together into the final video, thus showing an excellent cross section of Kleptones fans from around the world.

We thought we’d have two options:

1 – As befits the subject matter of the song, we want you to send us video clips of yourself, or your friends, or your family, or your pets or whatever…) either JUMPING or DANCING. If you want to mouth some of the words of the tune too, that’s cool, but the action is the main thing – use your excellent imaginations…

2 – If you can’t video, then we’d like you to take a picture of yourself (or your friends etc…) holding up a sign that says “Kleptones” – yes, you can add witty messages, just as long as they’re clearly visible – remember quite a lot of people will end up watching the video on a little YouTube size screen.

That’s it. Really simple, innit?

Doesn’t matter what you use – your phone is fine, better quality cameras are great if you have them.

For uploading / sending, we’d recommend using a free no-registration service like WeTransfer, but whatever suits you best – If you want to upload it to Vimeo or Flickr first and send us the link, that’s fine too…

Send anything and everything (including questions, if you have them!) to this address:

bodyjump@kleptones.com

So please, please, help us out, return the favour for all the free tunes we’ve given you and make us a quick pic or vid – the more we get the better it will be and we will love you for it, what’s more you’ll be immortalised on the “Uptime/Downtime” DVD (and maybe even end up as part of the live AV show)!!!

(Also it will give us the confidence to launch another, considerably more insane project with you all next year…)

Remind yourself what “Body Jump” sounds like here

The deadline for submissions is Monday 6th December EXTENDED TO 10th January 2011 – Now there’s no excuse!

PS Three new DJ dates: 01/12 Dusseldorf, 11/12 Brighton, 17/12 Manchester :)
details on the site – full info in the next post!

The drumroll may have started, but the case is still empty. All that will change very soon, in the traditional flurry of packing, as Eric gets himself ready for his trip to Brazil to play at Bootie Rio this Friday 17th!

Although we’re not exactly sure what the evening will hold, it’s certainly going to be something very special, as naturally, the Bootie Rio crew take their partying very seriously – Playing with the theme of our very name as described on Wikipedia – A “klepto of tones”, or “thieves of music”. the night will have a decidedly underworldly feel – a series of famous mugshots have been seen promoting the night, and rumour has it that there will be Bootie Police on the door checking everyone’s credentials – miscreants risk ending up in a cell inside the club. As to what will happen when Eric himself enters the club, you’ll have to be there yourself to find out…

Also playing a live mashup set on the night will be Lucio K, who recently fired some questions to Eric for the Ipanema Blog – you can read the results here (scroll down for the English translation!).

The whole shebang takes place at Fosfobox in Copacabana, Rio De Janeiro this Friday 17th September – If you’re not in Brazil, there’s still time to book your flights… ;-) Until next time, it’s adeus from us…

…for all the kind words and complementary reviews for “Shits & Giggles” – was hoping it would find you all in the spirit it was intended :-D

Thanks also again again again to everyone that’s been out to see us this Summer – Shame the weather hasn’t been as good as the shows!

Also, as a thank you to all the peeps who came out to the Playgroup Festival in August, the organizers are throwing a free celebratory bash this Friday (3rd) at The Concorde 2 in Brighton – Eric will be spinning up his hard drive for a surprise set, so get yourself down if you’re around!

Couple of mentions for some reading matter – Eric recently did an interview with Hiram from the rather fine Harvey Girls for the Circle Into Square blog – you can have a read here!

Also, amongst many other producers and DJs, Eric was interviewed for Aram Sinnreich’s recently released book “Mashed Up: Music, Technology, and the Rise of Configurable Culture” – You can read an excerpt from the book here!

And finally, a certain instrumental found it’s way into our nest this afternoon and in a little flurry of keyboard-and-mouse activity, we thought we’d flip it on it’s head – hope you like ;)

The Kleptones – Do You? (Direct download)

Next stop Bootie Rio! See you there on the 17th September :-D x

(Yes, I know it’s a mis-quote – watch the first vid and you’ll get it, mm’kay?)

Okay, time for a round-up of what’s new and happening here in K-land. Do I sound enthusiastic? That’s because I am!

First up, here’s a little video reminder / souvenir of our first Glastonbury set of this year, lovingly cut together by my erstwhile video collegue Pete Wallace of Butch Auntie. Props also go to Simon Risbridger for capturing the crowd mayhem and sorting the credits!

Next up is a new instalment to The Videotones project, which, as a whole, has already clocked up over 110,000 views on Vimeo alone (a large chunk of which is due to Crumbs Chief’s spectacular vid for “Come Again” being bounced around Twitter, Facebook and the blogs quite a bit over the past couple of weeks – thanks to all who reposted it!).

The latest instalment is a Downtime tune for a change, with Reborn Identity back (quite literally) in the saddle, discovering the western tension in “Exit”:

What’s more, if you’re in Oakland in the good ol’ USA this Friday (6th) you’ll be able to see the aforementioned Crumbs Chief video for “Come Again” shown large on The Great Wall Of Oakland, sometime between 6pm and 11pm! They’re taking some photos for us, so we’ll be able to show you how it looks!

Finally, we’re delighted to announce that we’ll be spreading our wings again, this time to Brazil, to play Bootie Rio on the 17th September! Full details and flyers as soon as we have them!

Ciao ciao!

The Kleptones @ Glastonbury Festival Dance Village 24th June 2010 – a few quick dirty screengrabs! (Video bites and second set to follow as soon as it’s all converted and edited!)

Meanwhile, what everyone else got up to while we were away… THREE new Videotones from the legends that are Crumbs Chief, Mashup-Germany and Instamatic!

All we can say is a breathless thanks to the three awesome videopeeps above for their excellent work, and all of you that came and got crazy with us at Glastonbury! As u should all know by now, it really is one of our favourite places to play, and this year’s shows were genuinely THE best ever, for which we’re very grateful to the organizers and the excellent stage crews for making it happen so good! Me (Eric) of course must also extend the hugest of thanks to Pete Wallace, Simon Risbridger and all the Videotones contributors (especially the project helmsman Instamatic) for making it shine out so brightly – What a crew! :)

Here’s hoping we get a chance to try and top it next year! Wooop!!!

We’re just leaving to head over to Heerlen in the Netherlands, to open the i_beta festival tonight – if you’re in the vicinity, come along!

Wanted to post the Glastonbury set times before we went though:

Thursday 24th June – 11.30pm : East Dance Tent, Dance Village (Silent Disco – 2hr AV set)

Sunday 27th June – 11pm : Rabbit Hole Stage, The Park (Noisy Disco! – 90m AV set)

There’s a considerable possibility that Eric will be popping up somewhere to do a DJ set or two in between the above shows – details may appear here, or more likely on the Twitter and Facebook pages – watch the skies!

As a sign off, here’s a little piece of role reversal for any fans of “24 Hours”:

Unwanted Whisper (direct download)

Link removed – Track is available on the Shits & Giggles Download page!

Hello folks, hope youre all doing fine. It’s been a while, but, as always with us, that means we’ve got tons of stuff to tell you about, so buckle in, it’s a long one!

First up is some gig information, which we’ll attempt in an orderly fashion:

Thursday 10th June : i_beta festival, Niewe Nor, Heerlen, Netherlands (Venue and ticket details here)

The event descripes itself as “…all about being in development, learning, adapting and evolving. At the i_beta/festival 2010 we present new trends from e-culture, e-conomy and the challenges for the international region of Limburg. A varied programme offers new experiences and ideas for creatives and entrepreneurs alike.” A great concept and one that we’re delighted to be a part of. We’ll be opening the event at the ace Niewe Nor venue, playing a full AV set. Tickets are available just for our show, or for the full event!

24th-27th June : Glastonbury Festival, UK

Well it wouldn’t be summer without a customary visit to the finest music and arts festival on the planet would it? This year we’re delighted to be playing in three different locations (and there may be more to come…) including another legendary Silent Disco set. We’ll have days and times for you very, very soon, so watch this space.

27-29th August : Festinho, Hinwick House, Northamptonshire (NOT Bedfordshire, but near!)

Given the excellent reception and generally awesome time we had here last year, it’s going to be an absolute pleasure to return to Festinho and their new (gorgeous) site at Hinwick House. With Hexstatic and AGT Rave Cru on the bill too it’s going to be quite a cut’n'paste fest! Highly recommended that you come along!

More summer shows to be announced soon, and a couple of extra-special shows in planning for September and October that are really going to knock your socks!

Okay… while this is all very well and good, you’ll be wanting some more music won’t you, insatiable ones?

Well, in the preparations for the above we have indeed been creating some new bits and pieces (as well as remixing and twisting some oldies, but you’ll have to come to the shows to hear them!) and also doing some general clearing out of the hard drives, and yes there’s a lot of stuff on them that you haven’t heard (over two CDs worth!) – part of the problem of doing “concept” works is that things that don’t fit the concept get left out, which is often a shame!

So in the time-honoured tradition of stop-gap albums, we’re putting together a collection of our favourite unreleased tracks. There’ll be a few new ones too, a couple of previously-blog-only favourites and maybe even the oft-whispered-about “Night At The Hip-Hopera” missing tracks, that were left off the final running order so it would fit on a single CD.

Having surveyed the possible inclusions, we’ve decided to entitle the collection “Shits And Giggles”, as that was indeed what many of the tunes were created for.

It’ll be out sometime towards the end of June, but in the meantime we’d like to ask you a favour… It has come to our notice that more than a few of you are of a visually artistic bent, so we’d like to invite you to make the cover for the album themed around the title. (“Shits And Giggles”, innit?). Doesn’t matter whether it’s photography, hand-drawn, photoshopped, whatever, if you think you’d like to have a go, do so, and email us the results by 15th June at the latest, preferably sooner! Whoever does the one we like the best can negotiate a prize with us :)

As a bit of a taster, here’s a couple of new tracks from the album to get you in the mood.

Lazy Dancer (Direct download)

Flik Flok (Direct download)

(Links removed – Tracks are now available on the Shits & Giggles Download page!)

And as an additional bonus, amongst many other awesome producers we were asked by the fine folks at Bootie Rio to contribute a track towards Brazillian national newspaper O Globo’s style guide to the last decade, using only tunes from that decade. We just happened to be working on a tune that fit the bill so we gave it to them! Have a listen here:

Heydrum (Direct download)

(Link removed – Track is now available on the Shits & Giggles Download page!)

We’ll be posting more tunes to Soundcloud as they near completion, so keep your eyes peeled there, or join up and follow us – you never know what might appear…

Phew. So much going on and more to come – hope you like the tunes and looking forward to seeing you at a festival for a drink in the sun!

Greetings from San Francisco! Despite the fine drizzle outside today, we’re having a mighty fine time entertaining the Californian Bootie troops out here – already two highly memorable shows in Portland and SF, and one more to go this Saturday 3rd April in LA! (although don’t forget we’ll be zooming home for Bootie London on Friday 9th April)

In the meantime, if you want to hear it straight from the animal’s oral cavity, tomorrow Eric will be the special guest on The Evolution Control Committee’s “The Sound Of Plaid” radio show.

If you’re unfamiliar with ECC’s work (and shame on you if so!), check out the many fine tracks on their download page, or to hear an example of their influence on the K-Sound, Eric recommends checking the classic “Rocked By Rape”.

The show airs tomorrow live 8-10pm PST, and there’s also several repeats on Thursday including ones at more Euro-friendly times. If you can’t catch those though fret not, as the show will also be archived on the ECC site. Full details of all the times and locations can be found here!

So tune in or miss out!