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 Shits & Giggles!)

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 Shits & Giggles!)

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!