Hits from the blogs

While doing a little digging around the K-referencing sections of the web, I found a couple of sweet things worth mentioning.

First off is this simple but very effective video combining one of the tracks from "Yoshimi Battles The Hip-Hop Robots" with some bizarre old newsreel footage from the Internet Archive. The end result had me chucking into my coffee this morning. Nice one, Shpilkis.

Second off was spotting that we'd been noted on Wiley Wiggins' blog "News Of The Dead". Wiley's voice pops up in a few places on "24 Hours", so we're chuffed as punch to see the mention. Hope you like what we've done to you, WW :)

Finally we have to extend thanks to our Wikipedia-writing fans, who have extended our entry to incorporate info about "24 Hours" - If anyone feels like adding to the list, go for it - it's always great to find out what we've been up to...

I'll be waiting here, with my arms unfurled...

Well, maybe not literally. Chances are my arms will have furled right back by then, and I'll be asleep, but I wanted to change the top-post so it wasn't so moody as the one below, as, thanks to Alex's comment on the last post (cheers, El Duderino), we've just realised we've been linked on the Blogger homepage.

Shit, I thought we had a bunch of really chatty readers all of a sudden.

Anyway, as this is kind of a functional blog, more than a chatty, you'll never guess what I saw today blog, or a you'll never guess what I found on the net today blog, or a pay attention and listen to me and my opinions you assholes sort of blog, that I should skim up a introduction / reminder for you new free-clicking people.

We're The Kleptones. We live here and we make new sounds out of other people's old sounds. Sorta. Kind of like The Wombles do with trash, but better and infinitely more listenable. There's tons of downloads and stuff. You'll probably hate it, but you will undoubtedly know someone who will be blown away when you send them the link, and will forever think of you as a zeitgeist surfer deluxe. Really.

Thanks for stopping by, anyway, Mum, and I'll ring you tomorrow, promise.

It's a drag.

It sure is.

We're compelled to respond to the postings in the comments of the previous posts and also the emails we've received from people offering payment for the albums that they have downloaded.

As all downloaders are aware, this stuff does not belong to us. We have virtually no right under current copyright law to redistribute the sources we use in the manner we do. It's a debatable situation, and one we'd rather not be arguing in a law court, thanks. We've been very lucky so far that no-one has seen fit to make a determined effort to stop us. (Waxy's C&D, we think, was an unfortunate shot across the bows. So it goes.)

However, the time that we have to do this is limited, as we have to convert a large chunk of that time into cash, so we can pay the rent, eat, and get the beers in from time to time, just like most other people. We'd like more time to do more stuff, but hey, wouldn't everyone?

So, the conclusions we've come to are these:

If you want to donate some money in payment for any of the albums you've downloaded, we're sorry, we can't accept it. We don't own the rights to the sounds we use, and therefore are risking infringing on people's copyright in a far more personally damaging way if we accepted payment for it. We believe that people should have the right to make not-for-profit derivitive works, remixes, parodies, social commentaries, whatever, of music that they own, therefore accepting money in that way is virtually impossible, sorry. One day, things will improve (we're optimistic), but till then...

However, what we are considering is, if you enjoy what we've done, and would like to financially assist us in the future to create more, bigger, better works of any description, both online and (soon) live on a stage, please email us and we'll supply the details. We're not asking for any set amount, but we want people to be aware of exactly what they're donating towards, before they do.

We think this is reasonable, but we'd like to open it up to the floor. What do you think?

I like to be here when I can...

Yup, home again. Head in pieces, but body mostly intact. (hehe...)

Must first extend large warm-hearted thanks to The Birthday Party and On The Piste for working their asses off for the amazing week of frolics that was Trans Alpine XS.

A blur of snow and insanity from the get go, everyone involved rocked hard from start to finish, allowing us to play some great sets (including one, claimed by Jim All Time Top 100 to be our best ever, although you've probably sobered up and changed your mind now, Jim ;), along the way making some excellent friends. Thanks and greetings to the Tramp! boys, the It's Bigger Than boys, the inspirational JD Twitch, The very wonderful Howard Marks (room-mate and a half for most of the week), the equally wonderful Clint Boon (and better half, hi Charlie!, room-mates for the last day), Martin Brew, Rob Bright, Laurie Laptop, Sean Smith... sure there's more, but our brains are on a go-slow as the bodies digest the full English breakfast that is the traditional return-home meal for most Brits abroad.

So, back to reality with a bump to find that we're out of bandwidth again, but there are new, working and better than ever torrents up, which should please most of you. The rest should look to your peers, and your peer-to-peers, or check the comments in the previous posts.

Also while we were away, found out about a couple of veeeeery interesting things, first the new DJ Shadow single, which will certainly raise some eyebrows, but jaws remain on the floor at the news that the multitrack parts for two of the tracks from David Byrne & Brian Eno's seminal (i.e. as essential to your life as semen) album "My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts" are to be made available for free under a CC licence. Gentlemen, my hat, and other easily-removable pieces of clothing, come off to you! I'll save the rest for when you make the full album available (hinty fucking hint). The future lies this way, folks - record companies looking for back catalogue interest please take note.