I’ve been featuring bits off the first three Kleptones albums in this quad-trilogy on the podcast for the last few years (just realised there were four of them, I somehow missed ‘AD”!) – OV, ER, and LO. They are being released on YouTube over the next four weeks, every Wednesday at 4pm UK time.
The first has just gone live is the trailer/taster, the ‘Short Attention Span’ version onto YouTube, and the full album as well. Feels weird to be in on a big secret like that and not actually know, I assumed they had been released, but I did wonder why people were quiet about them 😉
Anyway nice to see them get more sunlight (so little of that this time of year) and come out into the open. These albums feel like a bit of a departure from Kleptones of old, a hybrid of ‘Downtime’ and ‘Uptime’ all at once, more esoteric, less recogniseable hooks, deeper music that takes time to get. More music to sit with than club DJing? That doesn’t mean it’s all downtempo.
Very much like some of the concept albums that appear in the mix, actually (the ones I spot, a bit like the work of Departure/Homebound Kid the sources aren’t announced and it becomes more of a plunderphonic blend, tracks have their own identity and less like typical mashup/pop reference nostalgia).
Favourites I’ve already played on the podcast include Self Assist played back in 337 which says ‘where the fuck are we going’ with the Wevie Stonder/Wevie De Crepon Ton Wah lift. Bollards! And Reclaim This with Grace Jones ‘they tried to strip me of dignity’ seems a precursor of the albums to come.
And the lead ‘single’ on the EP released before OV, Lost Time – which it’s breakbeat tones with ‘looking backwards in search of lost time’ and the rap about supporters and crazy world seems very prophetic on what was to come. And in the stack still to play is Perfect Vision with it’s QOTSA ‘No One Knows’ vocals – like a sort of anthemic soundtrack piece, uptempo but also simultaneously downtempo, a contradiction that appears a lot on the four albums.
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