Friday Freebies

Ah, mash-ups. Remember when they were all the rage? Like… Jesus, it was two years ago. Huh – seemed like it’d been longer than that. Anyhow, in our fast-paced, cybertronic, electronic, go-go-go world, things that were cool just the other day are soon left in the ashes of history.

Or something like that. I just got out of my American Lit class, and I’m feeling all sorts of verbose, thanks to the whole poetry section we’re doing at the moment. Damn you, T.S. Eliot!

The point I’m trying to make here is that sometimes the music that gets discarded ought to get a closer look, or at least get looked at again. The Kleptones are a wonderful case in point. Not content with releasing single-track mash-ups, knocking together some Christina Aguilera with whatever hip-hop artist sounds funniest. No, sir.

The Kleptones put out two concept albums built around themes (the Flaming LipsYoshimi Battles the Pink Robots or Queen‘s A Night At the Opera as backing tracks), one radio broadcast mixing Detroit sounds and moving to Jamaican tunes, and recently put out a double-disc concept album that goes through 24 hours of a man’s life. It will blow your fucking mind.

Despite the fun that comes from trying to figure out what samples you just heard (feel free to use the Kleptones Wiki for that), the albums are remarkable examples of what can be done with some serious creativity. Sure, it’s using nothing but what other artists have created, but it’s certainly far more interesting than hearing “Fight Test” again.

Every Kleptones album available in a variety of download options right here.

Even without some music lessons many people can learn to play with online resources.