The Kleptones have a new album out! Strangely enough for a band of remix laptop audio pirates, it’s a live album. And there’s a bunch of associated A/V content. I’ve never been a big fan of “musical experiences” which couple music with other sensory aesthetic pleasures. Mostly I find the whole to be less than the sum of the parts. But that’s just me, whatever. And the music is the music, and the music is there.

The Kleptones veer back and forth from a basic formula of layering hip hop lyrics onto remixed pop and rock riffs, peppered with movie soundbites. Formulaic or not, they do it real well.

Here’s the announcement.

Here’s the download site.

Warning: playing kleptones on your home stereo system can give Mitch Bainwol a headache, even though he doesn’t know why it’s happening. Dan Glickman too, for that matter.

Also, turns out Eric and Jim from the “band” have a radio podcast and associated music blog.

update: The album is a mix of old material thoroughly reworked plus lots of stuff I haven’t heard before. And they really seem to have moved away from the central theme of recontextualizing hip hop lyrics into a much freer flowing mix of madhattery. (although if you’re yearning for more too-black rhymes over more too-white guitar and synth licks, fear not, they’re in there.) Mashup music is rarely an emotional or otherwise artistic experience. It’s more about fun and craft than art. It’s a celebration of the masher’s experience of music — which all great music probably is in part, but mashup mostly stops there and ‘great’ music keeps going. But for shear musical what the hellness, this particular mashup music is hard to beat. And try sitting still through it. Go on. Try.