You’ll be happy to hear we have a stack of things to announce.

Yes, there is a new “album” on the way. Woo.

It’s around 75-80% finished.

We don’t want to give too much away yet, but, fully assembled, it’s going to be the largest thing we’ve ever put out and yes, it will hopefully all be available for free (however, please see below).

What’s more, we’re hoping to initially release the album in quite an experimental way, So if you’re interested in experimenting with us, please express your interest by signing up to the mailing list and we’ll explain more in a little while.

One thing we’ve learned for sure over the years, giving away albums for free unfortunately doesn’t come cheap, so to help, we’ve thrown caution to the wind after the horse has bolted, and have set up a Patreon page here:

https://www.patreon.com/kleptones

If you can spare a quid, a dollar, or a euro a month (or more!) to help us keep working at a decent speed (and say thanks for the stuff we’ve already released too, maybe), we would very, very, very much appreciate it.

The more support we receive, the more you get back, it’s that simple.

You will also get a huge glow of satisfaction from being one of the people that helped it happen. And a bitchen’ soundtrack to boot. And we’re looking forward to welcoming you to the squad and getting to know you better into the bargain.

(Side note – If you’re wondering why we haven’t done this sooner, we wanted to wait until we had a good stack of material ready, thus providing value for money – Feel free to message us if you have ideas for additional rewards and bonuses.)

If you’re unfamiliar with Patreon, or want to find out more, have a look here.

Of course, huge thanks also go to everyone that has donated through the website previously, helping keep it online, we really appreciate that, you folks are fsking awesome.

But seriously, if you like what we do, please give this some thought, it really would make a difference, we cannot stress enough.

(Side Note 2 – If, for any reason, you would like to support us but do not want to use Patreon, please get in touch direct and let’s discuss finding a way that suits you to a tee.)

By way of introduction to all the stuff that’s going to be happening, we’re releasing a new four-track EP: “COUNT-IN (1234)”.

We’ll be putting up one track a day here starting tomorrow. They’ll also be on YouTube / Facebook / Twitter.

(We haven’t made “proper” videos for the tracks, but we’ve appropriated some visuals that we think provide good accompaniment to the music. Hope you agree.)

We also have TWO new Hectic City Mixtapes ready to release.

We’ll be releasing the downloads for the EP & the mixtapes the day after we’ve posted the four EP tracks.

HOWEVER, for the forseeable future, all release announcements and download info for these and future releases WILL NOW ONLY BE MADE VIA OUR MAILING LIST.

Reasoning = Sadly, it’s getting harder and harder to get the word out via regular social media, without continually begging you all for retweets and reposts, or paying for advertising, or paying some dodgy company to hype our numbers, all of which we are unwilling to do.

So we’re taking a risk and asking you to sign-up. It costs you nothing, you get the music, and we know we’ve reached you. Which saves us a whole bunch of time that we can then spend on working up more music. Simple, eh?

Yep, it’s a risk, but there’s way too much interference on regular social media, so we think it’s time to take our (that’s us and you) conversation elsewhere. This is the first step. It’ll be an interesting journey. We hope you agree.

SO JOIN THE MAILING LIST HERE

(If you’re already on the list then please pat yourself on the back for being ahead of the curve.)

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy the new sounds.

All the best,

The Kleptones.

PS Any questions or enquiries? Feel free to email us.

Okaydoke, I’m coming back from a forced couple-of-months hiatus, mainly due to having to find somewhere new to live and make a Kleptones base, which took rather longer than expected – Space, as you may well imagine, is at a premium in this overcrowded city, which has led to some very over-the-top rents (32% rise in three years apparently) and some rather minuscule dwellings – Being rather a tall chap with a bit of baggage, living hand-to-mouth, it’s not the most ideal of situations. Sorted now though, thank f–k, and it was just in time for us to kick off the new venue for Kleptonite on 10th November!

(Pics appropriated from Instamatic and DJ Payroll, sure they won’t mind!)

As I mentioned before, The Britannia in Hackney (map) seemed to be an ideal venue, and so it proved, with valiant back up from the Butch Auntie visual massive, and Instamatic producing a storming and very well received debut AV set, it all went rather well. Not the hugest of sound-systems, but good enough for now – If the crowd grows, we’ll be able to afford a better PA! And we’re going to continue, second Saturday of each month – The next one will be on Saturday 8th December (special guest to be announced soon!), so if you’re in the vicinity, come down, and if you think you’d like to play a set, especially if you’re video-centric, get in touch!

While we’re on the gig front, after many attempts, I’m going to be DJing at Pretty Vacant in Dusseldorf on Saturday 1st December. Those of you will remember the last time I attempted this I ended up snowed in, so we’ll be pulling out some major weather spells to ensure it doesn’t happen this time!

Finally, now all the home-moving shizzle is out of my bizzle, we can get back onto the regularly-posting-tunes-and-mixes train, so here’s a couple of classic 70s rockers given a rather dubby makeover. Hope you like, and see you soon!

(Soundcloud links below – open the post in a new window if they don’t show up in your blog reader!)

So… back to modern times, sort of. Here’s a tune I debuted at Bootie SF the other week, which screamed Bootie as soon as I put it together, and worked a treat I must say. So much so, that I’ve passed the download over to them as an exclusive, so if you want a copy, you’ll have to head over to the Bootie site. It’s worth it though, there’s a fine clutch of tracks there to be had for free!

What’s more, I’ll be playing at the next Bootie London alongside New York’s finest DJ Lobsterdust, and local heroes Instamatic and Payroll in support. Like last time, it’s at Electrowerkz, running later this time till 4am, so if you’re about, you really should come down! Full details at the Bootie London site!

More plans are afot for future London and elsewhere shows, and we’re starting to investigate Kickstarter ideas to see how we can make more shows happen – if you want us in your area, wherever that may be, and/or you think you can help us with some ground level wisdom from your own town or city, please drop me an email, it would be amazing to make it happen, and it’s a lot easier than you might think!

Well it certainly feels like it. So much has happened in the last couple of weeks, and there’s more on the way as always! I’m going to split everything I want to say into two posts, the “then” and the “now/future”, to make it a little easier to digest / skim, but first off, I must extend hugest of thanks to both Bootie SF and the team behind XOXOfest for being so many flavours of awesome and making my US trip such a joy.



I’ve always maintained that the San Francisco Bootie crowd are probably the most open-minded bootleg crowd in the whole world, and again they did not disappoint, lapping up everything that I threw, including the debut of a clutch of new tunes. A mighty fine time was had by all, big hello back to everyone that came up and said hi, and thanks to the cheerfully tolerant DNA Lounge crew and A+D as always for being excellent hosts. Again, soon, I hope!



From the rolling fog of San Francisco thence up the coast to Oregon, to find Portland gently fanning itself in what I was told was rather unseasonable, humidity-free, mid-late 20s heat (celsius, I am a euro ;). A glorious and welcoming start to what was, well, a glorious and welcoming long weekend.

A working start for me, though as I immediately zoomed up to Holocene to provide a five and a half hour DJ set as backing for the festival opening party. Not that I was complaining, it was a great relaxed opportunity to play right across the board, drink good beer and meet some folks, including a long-overdue first hello with co-organizer Andy Baio, a fan since early K-days, and whose mirroring of “Hip-Hopera” back in 2004 when my site went down led to a considerable amount of legal hi-jinks.

For most of Friday I was in a rather stressed state of mind, preparing for my first-ever solo AV Kleptones performance that night, and generally looking down my own body for more digits to cross. Yes! Previous AV shows, as you know, have been ably assisted by Butch Auntie, but budgetary restraints had always stopped us from taking this show any further than Europe. As XOXO was going to be rather special, and also I was a little unsure as to whether the crowd would be in a dancing mood or not, I thought the time was right to take the plunge and do it all myself. And I did… just. Needless to say, sharing the load onstage is a great thing, and not to be underestimated!

That said, I was delighted with how it went down. and doubly delighted to see many, many dancing people (including the aforementioned Mr.Baio ;). Thanks to you all and the ace crew at Holocene for making that a fun one, and also hail-fellow-well-met to both Julia Nunes and MC Frontalot and their respective musicians, who both played great sets before me, and did wonders in reducing my own pre-set nerves. A top night, if a little scary. Apologies to everyone that got the full blast of my adrenaline-fuelled relief afterwards – I was buzzing quite a bit, as you may have noticed…

Saturday morning found me with my responsibilities discharged (HT ‘The Young Ones’ ;), allowing me time to soak up the festival and conference itself.

Much has been already written online by finer hands than my own (see Wired, The Verge and Boing Boing), so all I need to add is that it was an absolute joy for myself to be part of the friendly tornado of ideas and wisdom that constituted XOXO.


As has been pointed out elsewhere, some in attendance were not what one would call “natural mixers”, but the collective down-to-earth mindset (established and encouraged in no small part by co-founders Andy McMillan & Andy Baio), the beautiful urban setting and the balmy weather (and of course, the fine Portland food and drink) encouraged everyone to dump their excess mental baggage and egos at the entrance and use the weekend as the creative playground it was intended to be. Big talk, you may say, but for once, it all fucking worked, and it was glorious. Coders, designers, makers, artists, musicians (hi!), organizers, do-ers, thinkers-one-and-all stepped into the ring simultaneously yet gave each other sufficient space. Yes, that is possible, and it was truly impressive.

A high standard of presentations and speeches (including a highly polarizing keynote from Dan Harman) provided plenty of kick-off brainwaves to keep the conversations buzzing throughout the day, and some great after-parties (and other concurrent local events – was surprised to end up at a Fade To Mind show on the Saturday night!) allowed folks to kick back and continue their conversations at a more leisurely pace. Everyone I met, without exception, was a true star in their own field, and many, many new friendships and creative partnerships will, I’m sure, be formed in the festival’s wake. Job well done, everyone!

I did feel rather sad to be returning, but fortified by the wave of energy described above, it doesn’t feel so bad to be home.

Onwards and upwards, as always…

A couple of things to announce and a couple of new tunes for you! We’re going off on a little September sojourn… First stop will be Bootie SF on Saturday 8th September, with hosts A+D in town, Smash-Up Derby live, and the finest mashup crowd on the planet!

Following that it’s up to XOXO in Portland on Thursday 13th September (you need to be registered with XOXO to get into the Portland show, and it’s completely sold-out, but we’ll be around all weekend, so keep watching the Twitter feed, PDX-ers, you never know what might happen!)

And a couple of new tracks! Up top, “Love In The City” takes some Putney boys off to meet a Canadian Godfather uptown, or possibly round a campfire, and down below “Short And Round” gets rather silly and offensive indeed…

Hope to see you soon!

(Image of “Paper Record Player” by Simon Elvins – details here)

A couple of months ago I spontaneously decided to set up an album listening club on Twitter, borne out of that good ol’ simple desire to spread and share interesting music. Admittedly, there have been a spate of similar things appearing in the last year, mainly either “listening together in a room”, or “listening online at an allotted time”, but they all either decided on their music by a vote, or stuck to pretty straightforward (although classic) choices.

That’s all very well and good luck to ’em, but what interests me more is that “personal choice” – those albums you discover that fit your needs of the time so perfectly you’re left wondering about the powers of synchronicity as your heart fills to the brim with joy, and those albums that boggle your mind so much that you dive online immediately to find out more about the people behind them, and what drove them to create such a thing and unleash it on the public.

Also it should come as no great shock to you that we here at Kleptones Inc. are very much big fans of the “long-play”. Albums, mixes, whatever… the ability to take a listener off on a satisfying journey is rarely something that can be accomplished in three or four minutes, as has been proven time and time again over, ohh, the last few hundred years or so.

So to empower the participants, and to increase that random “personal choice” factor, the only rule established has been that whoever selected an album for listening would pick their favourite tweeter from the playback, and the baton would then be passed to that tweeter to make the next selection. Simple as.

And it’s worked rather well – a fine troop of listeners has emerged, and the selections so far have ranged from lesser known albums by established bands, a raft of new (or “new to us”) artists from far and wide, and obscurities from the flip-side of previous decades. Not everything has been to everyone’s taste obviously, and there have already been several WTF moments, but that’s that way it should be, really. However, it’s only just getting started we think, and the boundaries are only just beginning to be pushed, which is why the time has come to let you all know about it, and invite you to come join in the fun. We need your input!

Timezone corroboration obviously is a bit tricky, but the agreed time of 8pm BST (GMT+1) each Sunday is working well (although apologies to the Aussies, can’t stretch that far sadly), however the albums generally stay up for a little while after, and there always seems to be a few folks tweeting their catch-up listen in the following days. We realise there’s no way that everyone is going to be around every week, but, like your favourite radio show, Listening Club will be there, should you be in the mood.

So yea verily, get your tweet on and come join us by following @listeningclub on twitter, where all the info is passed out and questions answered (album info gets posted on a separate blog here). It’ll be great to have you along, and find out what album you’re going to pick…

New trailer for our live show from the chaps at Butch Auntie, and a tribute to the ace crowds we get to play with!

Festival season seems to start earlier and earlier each year, and this year is no exception, so we’re proud to announce that Eric will be kicking off the season with a DJ set at Paaspop near Schijndel in the Netherlands on Saturday 7th April.

Eric’s playing as part of the “Mashup Bastards” team on Saturday night, just past Midnight at the Thunderbolt stage, with DJ Morgoth, DJ Schmolli and our host MadMixMustang also doing sets over the weekend.

Can’t think of a better start to the (extended) summer, really!

Well, maybe! I’m going to be DJing here and there in London over the next while, questing for a good place to establish a London residency (or two). The plan being, once a good place and crowd is found, to start inviting a few friends and inspirations down to do guest spots. Should be fun, no?

First place for a hat drop will be The Luxe in Spitalfields THIS FRIDAY (9th March). (You may know The Luxe better by it’s previous name, Spitz, I do, having played there a couple of times in the past). Can’t really want for a better location, being right in the thick of the Spitalfields / Shoreditch / Brick Lane axis.

It’s FREE and runs 7pm-1am ish, so you can come early and rinse out the grind of the working week, or come late and use it as a launchpad for further adventures. Looking forward to having the space to stretch out musically and try out a variety of new and old things, so there’s also an opportunity for you to come down and represent your preference, and help shape the direction I take…

Be great to see you! :)

Happy new year to you lot. Yes, we have been quiet. Yes, the album is coming soon. More about all that in a bit, though…

On to more important things, it goes without saying that kleptones.com will be on SOPA / PIPA strike tomorrow. It’s unlikely any of you would have heard *note one* from us if such laws had existed six or seven years ago. Regardless of where you are in the world, your freedom of speech and right to a fair trial are worth fighting for and protecting, both online *and* offline :) x