Some rather crazy news to impart – I’ve been chosen to stand for an hour on the Fourth Plinth at Trafalgar Square in London, as part of artist Antony Gormley’s “One And Other” project.

“This summer, sculptor Antony Gormley … is asking the people of the UK to occupy the empty Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, a space normally reserved for statues of Kings and Generals, in an image of themselves, and a representation of the whole of humanity.”

“The project, which is commissioned by the Mayor of London with funds from the Arts Council, and produced in partnership with Sky Arts, will see a different person take their place on the Fourth Plinth every hour, 24 hours a day, for 100 days. It will run from Monday 6th July until 14th October 2009.”

Now, I know what you’re thinking… and you’d be right! I will be creating a live mix via laptop from the plinth and broadcasting it in real time across Trafalgar Square and the whole city on radio and also to the world online via London’s Resonance FM. (My humblest of thanks go to the Resonance folks for agreeing to assist!)

The time slot I’ve been given is not the most family-friendly, being 4am BST Monday 10th August, but we’ll be taking advantage of the darkness to bring a whole additional level of visual wonderment to the proceedings – more details on that very soon!

So if you’re in London, or fancy witnessing a rather unique Kleptones event, please set your alarms, come along and don’t forget to BRING A RADIO!!!

If not, you’ll be able to see the live feed at the One And Other website, and hear the live mix streaming at Resonance FM.

Either way please spread the word – this will be a total and utter one-off :)

EDIT : You can pledge your support for me on my profile page at the One And Other site.

(Wow! I’m getting excited already – it’s going to be a whole load of fun, this one!)

Delighted to get an email from Timm from Doing Damage, who has submitted a Kleptones T-Shirt design to the folks at La Fraise:

Wish we were driving that around the festivals this summer – thanks Timm :)

It would be great if you could spare a minute to vote for the shirt by registering on the site here and then scoring it here (if you don’t speak German, click the little European Flag on the top left to change the language!) – The contest only lasts a week, so you have just under six days now to get your votes in!

We’re game for sorting out some more designs for shirts, and also looking for makers, so if you think you’re up for the task, gimme an email and we’ll make it worth your while!

…or rather grey, as usual, hehe. It’s been a while, mainly due to some very bad luck with internet providers following a house-move. It’s an interesting experience to be offline for two months (punctuated with occasional screaming/reasoning with various customer service representatives), but not one that I’d like to repeat, unless it was self-enforced.

But yes sir, we’re back, with a whole crapton of goodies to post, and plenty news as well. All coming up very soon, so thanks for hanging around :)

A few years ago, we put together an edit mix of different versions of Bohemian Rhapsody as a little Xmas gift for our mailing list.

Since then, I’ve been asked with rather surprising regularity for a list of the featured artists, which I’ve never got round to doing, mainly because I couldn’t remember where the source files were (sorry!). I got asked again t’other day and have actually managed to dig them up, so here, for those of you who are interested, is the list, in order of appearance (although some do appear more than once!).

Queen feat. Extreme (From Freddie Tribute Concert)
Bad News
Anonymous Answering Machine Message
Faye Wong
Hyannis Sound
Rockapella
Monserrat Cabalier & Bruce Dickinson
Rolf Harris
John Miles
Queen B
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Stepping Stone
The Former Yugoslavia (Dictionaraoke version)
Today FM DJs
Weird Al Yankovic
Weasel Walter
Black Strawberrys
Unknown (90s smooth soul)
The Braids
InterMagyar
Skoo
Jeff Scott Soto
Savatage
Ours
Russell Watson
Wolf Marshall
Brass Band De Waldsang
California Guitar Trio
Madison Scouts
Baromfi
Mountain Dew TV Commercial
De Dannan
Unknown (country-ish)

And here’s a link if you’ve never actually heard it:

The Kleptones – Bo

Looking back on it now, I’m surprised that we couldn’t find room for the solo accordion version, but there you go. There’s two versions in there that even we don’t know, as they came from untagged mp3s (if you want to play spot the Bo, they happen at 1m09 and 5m50 – Answers on a postcard, thanks).

So now you know :)

The good folks at Snuggles tipped me to the wonderful audio of Christian Bale freaking out on the Terminator Salvation set (yeah I know, it’s everywhere – forgive me for not keeping up to date with net memes ;), and it seemed so in sync with the tune I was working on at the time that I knocked up a quick remix:

The Kleptones – Who Cares? (Bale Out remix)

I think it turned out rather well – Hope you like!

The final part of HC8, and the final word from me on 2008 (maybe ;). Looking back on this there’s some things that really should have gone in (Squarepusher, Byrne & Eno, “Shackler’s Revenge”, Busta’s “Don’t Touch Me”, Wiley etc…) but they didn’t quite seem to fit anywhere while I was mixing, so it goes… Hope you’ve enjoyed the selection anyways, and a very Happy New Year to you all.

Only thing that remains is to ask if you think there’s anything obvious I’ve missed out on? – let me know if so – I’m all ears as usual :)

Direct download: MP3 or FLAC

Pacific UV – Alarmist
Shearwater – Rooks
Bon Iver – Blindsided
Evangelista – The Blue Room
Thomas Brinkmann – Words
Portishead – The Rip
Peter Broderick – Stopping On The Broadway Bridge
James Blackshaw – Echo And Abyss
The Caretaker – Long Term (Remote)

Right – Let’s get on with 2009!

(pic via the esteemed Speakers Push Air)

Direct download: MP3 or FLAC

Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus, Dig
Mrr-Adm – Track 04 (from unmarked 12″ EP)
Clinic – Corpus Christi
El Guincho – Antillas
Neon Neon – I Told Her On Alderaan
Mountain Goats – Lovecraft In Brooklyn
Deerhunter – Nothing Ever Happened
The Fall – Can Can Summer
The Dodos – Fools
Elbow – The Fix
Durutti Column – Glimpses
James Yuill – This Sweet Love (Prins Thomas sneaky edit)

Professor Pork says : “It’s a fine line, I know. Oink. But as house music continues it’s return journey from innovation back into pure functionality (discuss somewhere else, pls), it’s been left to the online production world to come up with the goods – Unfortunately their tendancy to promote and duplicate musical memes as quickly as possible for fear of seeming out of touch has left them with five hundred remakes of every half-realised idea, and no one that has the time nor the inclination to sift and sort through. Snort. You could make your own variation in the time it takes to listen to everyone else’s. See what you’ve done, Kleptone? Underground, overground, now everyone’s wombling free, you dig?”

Eric says: “Good for them, I say. Kudos to Fake Blood though, for having the decency to avoid repeating the same sounds across every tune he makes, and to Duke Dumont and Funkanomics for their persistance of vision in the face of fashion.”

Direct download: MP3 or FLAC

Mystery Jets – Two Doors Down (Duke Dumont remix)
Gregor Tresher – A Thousand Nights (Dubfire Quiet Storm remix)
Letroset – Skillex
Kriss Kross – Jump (Funkonomics Planet Cross remix)
Alex Gopher – Belmondo (Just A Band remix)
South Rakkas Crew – Mad Again (Fake Blood remix)
Underworld – Ring Road (Fake Blood remix)
Shinichi Osawa – Electro411 (Lies In Disguise Remix)
Trip – Who’s That (Jack Beats remix – Kleptones sharp end edit ;)

P.S. Apologies for the language skills. And thanks for the comments – very welcome as always :)

Rinsing the New Year’s Eve gunk out of your brains, here’s part two of the Best Of 2008 Mixes:

The Advisory Circle – Civil Defence Is Common Sense
The Bug – Freak Freak
Karl Hector & The Malcouns – Psycles
Q-Tip – Dance On Glass
Wayne And Max – Boston Jerk
These New Puritans – Numerology (Kleptones Quick Cumbia Over Dub)
Chancha Via Circuito – Cumbia Murguera
Drums Of Death – Ozzzy!
The Bug ft. Killer P & Flowdan – Skeng
Benga & Coki – Night
Caspa – Born To Do It
Vex’d – 3rd Choice (Loefah remix)
Matty G – 50,000 Watts (VIP mix)
Matty G – The 808 Bass
Rusko – Love Is Real
Sunship ft. Warrior Queen – Quita (Kaibata remix)
Skream – 2D
Rusko – Cockney Thug
The Advisory Circle – A Clear Yarn Warning

Soundcloud pulled it for some reason, but direct download here: MP3 or FLAC

Enjoy some bass with your hangovers…

Okay, the egg nog and mulled wine put us out of action for a few days as expected, so there’s a backlog of stuff to finish and get up, starting with the sort-of traditional megapost of the year’s best. As always when starting one of these, I think to myself “There’s not really been that much this year worth compiling, has there?”, but a swift look in the bulging box contradicts that pretty sharpish – It’s been a most excellent year for music, and what’s more, the main succeeders of the year (both for me, and in general) all seem to have come from left field, which is most pleasing.

Still, in a year dominated by Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Elbow, Portishead and the like, the three albums that got the most plays from me are as follows:

The Advisory Circle – “Other Channels” (Ghost Box) : Jim ATT100 tipped me to this on our now sadly defunct radio show, which was quite a surprise. I’d been keeping an eye and ear on Ghost Box’s releases, but had thought till now that they hadn’t quite found the sound to match their splendid eye for design (check their website to see) – “Other Channels” is the record to rectify that – a deranged collage of music concrete, lost 70s educational TV soundtracks and fragments of vintage Public Service films that blend into the perfect backing track to one of your strangest “Back To School” dreams/nightmares.

The Mountain Goats – “Heretic Pride” (4AD) : There’s almost nothing more satisfying than discovering a band and then finding they have a lengthy and impressive back catalogue to dig into – once you’ve got over the “how the hell did I miss this lot before?” stage, of course. John Darnielle has been recording as The Mountain Goats since 1991, and has gradually updated his sound and style from lo-fi cassette recordings to recent full blown studio experiences, courtesy of a 4AD bankroll. The sound may have got clearer and tighter, but there’s no denying the man’s exceptional ability to write fine tunes.

These New Puritans – “Beat Pyramid” (Angular) : I genuinely expected this to be a smash hit this year, but that shows you how much of a fashion barometer I am… Why not? I don’t know – Too arch and knowing? That chestplate? No marketing budget? All I know is this is the sound of two very current worlds colliding with excellent consequences – grime-y tech-step beats rub shoulders with Wire-y guitars and chanted vocals to fine effect. The frantic pace makes it a great “music to work to” album too which is probably why it got the most plays from me this year :)

So here’s part one of the five mixes. Five? Yes! Rather than bundle stuff into CD sized chunks, things seemed to sound nicer in smaller sections, so I’ve rolled with it. Hope that’s okay with you? Good.

Plenty fine stuff in part one, from Breakbot’s French House-meets-Hill Street Blues take on Pnau, DJ Downfall’s poptastic down-home distorted charm (and winner of the Mr Kleptone Award for best Genesis sample of the year) , Pearson & Usher’s symphonic deconstruction of Kelley Polar and yes, three Aeroplane remixes. It’s been another fine year for our cosmic Belgians, and my fingers are firmly crossed for their debut album, which should be landing sometime next year!

Direct download:MP3 or FLAC

Pnau – Baby (Breakbot remix)
DJ Downfall ft. Gene Serene – Seven Dials
The Shortwave Set – Now Til’ 69 (Aeroplane remix)
Ricardo Villalobos – Enfants (Olin fix – Kleptones edit)
Samos – Alpha Storm (An-2 remix)
Lovelock – Maybe Tonight (Kleptones Quick Instrumental edit)
Lullabies In The Dark – Song For Marie & Elise (Aeroplane remix)
Kelley Polar – Entropy Reigns (Pearson & Usher’s Second Law instrumental)
Ajello & Daniele Baldelli – Magic Feet
Nomumbah – Like A Rainbow (Dub mix)
Kelpe – Yippee Space Ghost (SID version – Kleptones edit)
Grace Jones – Williams Blood (Aeroplane vocal remix)

Hope you enjoy! Next part to follow very, very, shortly!