Happy new year! We’re just back from a long overdue vacation, and are picking up the holiday pieces – as its the end of the year, there have been lots and lots of end of year lists, some of which we appeared in – we’d like to extend thanks to everyone who considered us worthy of inclusion, we’re very flattered – there’s far too many to list individually, but we have to link and shout out to Best Of Bootie 2010 and Culture Bully’s Best of 2010 (in which you’ll also find out what our two favourite mashups of the year were too!).

To ring in the new, here’s Johnny Rollerfeet’s ace datamoshing Videotone for “Can’t Be Paranoid” – Major thanks to him for such excellent work!

A fresh dose of Videotones for Christmas Day! Pete from Butch Auntie, who has done most excellent work this year as Eric’s live video foil, gets spectacularly feline for “Destiny & Tenacity”:

Happy Holidays to you all!!! :)

artwork by David Campbell, who won the cover challenge.
Congratulations David, and thanks for your work!

Hope everything is fine, and the season is satisfying your needs.

Delighted to announce that “Shits & Giggles” is now available for download!

If you don’t already know, it’s a compilation of, well, tunes that just didn’t fit the album we we’re working on at the time for one reason or another – there’s a range of styles and tracks dating back to 2004, including two of the tracks that didn’t make the cut for “A Night At The Hip-Hopera” due to time constraints.

So yeah, 20 tracks in just under 80 minutes (and this is the last time we squeeze everything into a CD sized package – that seems very 20th century now, don’t you think?), mixed a little more gently than usual to allow for more convenient shuffle-play, as we’re not sure if you’d want to pound through all 20 in one session, although we’re not responsible for anything untoward that happens if you do, okay?

As we’ve got your attention, don’t forget our upcoming shows:

27th August : Festinho festival, Herefordshire, UK (AV set)
28th August : SECRET AV SHOW at a UK Festival (not allowed to say!)
17th September : Bootie Rio, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (DJ set)

More shows to come, but we’re always on the lookout for places to play – if you’re interested please let us know – where there’s a will there’s a way!

Hope you enjoy the album :)

Okay, a bit of big news that we’ve been keeping very quiet about over the last six months, is that we’ve contributed a remix to the new XBox 360 game Crackdown 2 – So whilst steaming your way around the (frankly rather awesome) gameworld, you’ll be hit by versions of tunes by Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Public Enemy, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Damned and Blue Oyster Cult, remixed by The Bug, Mistabishi, Dan The Automator, King Cannibal, El-B and Sientific American.

Honoured to be in such excellent company, we’re proud to add to that list our own remix of REM’s “Ignoreland”.

As is the way in such cases, we can’t let you hear the track here – you’ll have to get hold of a copy if you want the full Kleptones-enhanced experience, but believe me it’s worth it – developers Ruffian Games have done a mighty fine job, and pretty much all of the reviews seem to agree…

Quick bit of gig news to add – on 24th July Eric will be heading over to the Czech Republic to headline “Pure Fest”, a one day outdoor event in Mladá Boleslav (about 50km outside Prague). Looks like a seriously diverse range of music on offer, so we’re delighted to be invited to the party – if you’re in the vicinity, get yourself along – It’s our first time in the Czech Republic so it’s sure to be a good one!