Hey all, hope the season is finding you well! The English summer is now in full effect, which means sunglasses and wellies are de riguer for the next couple of months, as per usual…

We’re hoping for a little more of that sun and less of the welly on Saturday 3rd September, as we’re delighted to announce one last UK festival show for us at Woolfstock, a smart 2,000 capacity one-dayer just outside Newbury. To tempt you further, you’ll be getting a bigger dose of the K-Sound than any other festival this summer bar Glastonbury, as not only will we be playing a 90 minute AV set to close the Main Stage (following the most excellent British Sea Power and 6 Day Riot), Eric will then be legging it over to the Dance tent for a 90 minute DJ set. So that’s a solid three hours of K-Power in one day!

It’s really going to be an ace end to our European summer, partying in a seriously gorgeous location with some great friends, quality food and drink, and it’s not much more than an hour’s drive from London (and yes, you can camp!), so you really should come along, and spread the word to everyone you reckon will be up for it – it will be worthwhile!

Or it seems like it – Another festival date to announce, again in the Netherlands, to form a counterpoint to our previously announced show at Zomerparkfeest, we’ll be playing The Booch Festival in Heerlen the night before, Saturday 13th August! Shaping up to be an excellent weekend, especially if the reaction we got at Mama’s Pride in Geleen the other week is anything to go by…!

See ya soon!

Hey everyone, unfortunately I have to make a correction to the previously announced set times for Glastonbury. For once, not our mistake at all. Apparently this information will make it everywhere apart from the mini-guide, which has already gone to press – everything else, the programme, the glasto website (not quite right yet, but will be soon!), and the spanking new mobile app, should contain the correct info which is as follows:

Friday 02:30am – East Dance Tent Silent Disco (90m Full AudioVisual Spectacular)
(That’s Thursday night, obviously!)

Saturday 01:00pm – Dance Village Cubehenge (75min daytime outdoor DJ Set)

Monday 02:00am – East Dance Tent Silent Disco (2.5hr Eric special “120×120” DJ Set)
(Again, that’s Sunday night, obviously!)

So basically the Thursday night set is now a bit shorter, and the Saturday night set has moved to Sunday night and is now a bit longer!

Looking very likely there’ll be a DJ set somewhere in Shangri-La on either Friday or Saturday night too – watch the facebook and twitter pages for details – busy busy busy!

Hey everyone, hope the climate is agreeable and the going good wherever you are!

Some festival updates for you. First off, the long awaited set-times for Glastonbury… with an added bonus, as Eric will be doing an *extra* Silent Disco set on the Saturday night! (well, really Sunday morning, innit). This extra set will NOT be a regular Kleptones set, but instead it’s looking like it will be a lightning-paced zoom through his digital record box! He’s currently threatening at least 120 tunes at 120 different BPMs in 120 minutes! Will he manage it without falling over? Well, there’s only one way to find out…

So, the set times for Glasto 2011:

Friday 02:30am – East Dance Tent Silent Disco (2hr Full AudioVisual Spectacular)
(That’s Thursday night, obviously!)

Saturday 01:00pm – Dance Village Cubehenge (75min daytime outdoor DJ Set)

Sunday 02:30am – East Dance Tent Silent Disco (2hr Eric special “120×120” DJ Set)
(Again, that’s Saturday night, obviously!)

As with every year, there’s a jolly good chance that either Eric or the whole squad might pop up somewhere else over the weekend – the best bet is to keep your eye on the Twitter feed or the Facebook page to be first in the know!

Not got a ticket for Glastonbury? Well more fool you, but here’s another couple of places we’re going to be hanging out that might tempt you… First up we’re going to be playing at the very first Exstalgic Festival, at Hainault Forest Country Park in North London on Saturday 10th July. It’s billed as a “Collaborative Music Festival”, and knowing some of the crazy minds involved, there’ll be some serious jamming and cross-breeding going on all weekend. We’re going to be playing on the main stage on the Saturday, warming up for a mighty collaboration between DJ Yoda and The Trans-Siberian Marching Band, but will be getting into the spirit and popping up to jam some beats and riffs wherever we get the chance. Could this be the start of the UK version of Bonnaroo? Who knows, but it’s going to be a lot of fun, it’s a stones throw from the city and it’s only £75 for the weekend! – Details here.

Finally we’ll be heading back over to the Netherlands on Sunday 14th August to close the Dance Tent at Zomerparkfeest in Venlo, another ace looking small festival – Details of that here!

Also don’t forget we’re headlining the Saturday night of Mama’s Pride festival, also in those Netherlands tomorrow night, and it’s free! Details here.

In between all of that we’ll be cranking up the Hectic City wheels again, so expect a new flurry of DJ mixes and maybe a few tasters of the two (yes, two!) new albums that we’re currently working on…

Hope to see you in a field sometime soon!

Yaaaaaawn… Winter done? Great. Yes, it’s been kinda quiet round these parts, although really it’s more a case of last year having been so goddamn busy I think. However, We’re feeling refreshed and renewed, having taken a couple of months off tune-abusing to sort out some real-life issues, and personally make my first city move in a very long time. All accomplished and acclimatised now, and I’m delighted to be in London, catching up with both old friends and new, and generally loving the sheer volume of excellent creative activity that abounds here. I know Brighton wasn’t that far away, but there really is something to be said for being in the midst of all this. Is that a novelty that will wear off? I hope not :)

Anyway, now that Bagpuss has woken up, all his friends are waking up too, and you know what that means… yup, gig time!

Having shook off a few cobwebs last Saturday with a brief set at the People’s Republic Of Disco in Brixton (and thanks to the esteemed PROD comrades for having me, and all their supporters who made me feel very welcome), We’re delighted to announce our participation in the return of Bootie London! This time in Shoreditch, with A+D hooked in en route to a festival in Holland, the legend that is Joao Brasil, Host DJ Payroll and our great comrade-in-arms, and man of many pseudonyms Instamatic providing the opening set, it’s going to be another cracker.

To make it even more storming for me, it’s on Friday 22nd April, which is also my Birthday, which means public displays of drunkenness and proclamations of best-frenderies may well abound. Not sure what form the set is going to take yet, as I don’t have specs for the venue, so there might not be room for the full AV experience, but sure as eggs is eggs, you know it’s going to be good. There’s advance tickets available this time too, which should please all of you that kvetched about the queue at Cargo last year. You’d better buy up soon too, because I’ve got a feeling it’s going to sell out in advance, and I don’t want any boo-hoo if you turn up and can’t get in, okay? You’ve been warned!

So once that’s got the juices flowing, we’re straight into festival season already, and back in the Netherlands on Saturday 7th May to appear at the Mama’s Pride festival, at the Burgemeester Damenpark in Geleen – It’s a two-dayer, and completely free! The Selecter are headlining the Sunday, and we’re headlining the Saturday so really, my little Netherlanders, you really should get yourselves down there!

Of course there’s more to come, and some new tunes and mixes on the horizon, and work on the next album, and the one after that, and even more surprises….and… and…. Ah fuck, there’s tons of stuff coming. Don’t touch that dial :)

You may well have recently seen the excellent Mashup Breakdown site that was put together by Benjamin Rahn initially to display the sample data for Girl Talk’s “All Day” album – I certainly did as many of you emailed me a link! – However @bethgo on Twitter went one further than that and suggested to Ben that he do the same for “A Night At The Hip-Hopera”. I spotted the tweet, got in touch with them both, and, well, here you go – a complete (well, as complete as I can make it) visual breakdown of the entire album!

Click here, or the screenshot above to go to the breakdown!

This ties in quite nicely with another little plan, which is to (finally!) release fully lossless FLAC versions of all the albums, so, hopefully over the next couple of months we’ll be adding breakdowns of all the other albums one at a time, and will be releasing the lossless version of each album as the corresponding breakdown is published.

The lossless version is available as a direct download HERE.

However, if the hit to the servers proves too great, I reserve the right to replace the direct download with a torrent at any time – hopefully staggering the lossless releases should make the load more bearable! (*crosses fingers firmly*)

(PS In case you’re wondering – the lossless version has NOT been remastered or remixed in any way!)

FINALLY, we’ve extended the deadline for the video submissions to the “Body Jump” video till the new year, because, well, we haven’t had enough – we need loads! So all you people who thought “I don’t need to bother, everyone else will do one”… we want YOU! Really shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes to film a quick clip and bung it over to us – I don’t want to grumble and point out all the things we do for you (like the above!), but hey, we rarely ask of anything much in return, and this is the only way we get to know who you are – so be proud and get jumping – we’d love you to :) – details are HERE!

Till next time,

Eric K

PS Very last minute gig: I’m DJing at “The Queen Of Hoxton” in London tomorrow (Thursday 9th) night – Three hour set too – come down if you’re about and let’s kick off the holiday season in style! Also don’t forget I’m playing in Brighton on Saturday too – details a couple of posts down!

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…