Thanks Phonat mate, we love it

It's bloody hard to know what to say about a man and his music that has already been all over other blogs other than: oh look at this, it's brilliant but you've probably already heard it.

However, Phonat really is quite brilliant and we'd like it made public that we approve wholeheartedly of his contribution to the maledancepopelectrorave scene we are currently so very enamoured with.

'Set Me Free' is classic old school house, but brought bang up to date with the combination of vocal soul samples, Daft Punk influenced guitar loops and visuals and the stuttered electro-pop pioneered by the likes of Frankmusik and other brilliant young men who don't line their music to go in a straight line.

The video is bloody brilliant by the way, and is the sort of thing you'd see in one of those terrible bars or clubs where what's on the screens doesn't match what's coming out of the speakers, but looks far more exciting than the tat the bar staff are playing from their iPods.


Listen to more of Phonat's amazing music at his MySpace.

Visitor's third step towards being the best band in Britain

We feel like we NEED to stop writing about Visitor for a while because A. it feels like stalking and B. they've still not got any proper pictures yet and there's only so long we can look at their faded faces around that spooky space triangle thing.

So, in brief: there is now a third new Visitor song on their MySpace. It's called 'Hurt Someone' and this is the one, which, in Pigeon's words 'we wet ourselves over when we saw them at Goldust a few weeks ago'.

The best thing about the whole Visitor experience so far? All we've heard is demos. Think how amazing these songs will be once a professional (and we are fairly sure we know who) has gotten his hands on these songs.

'Hurt Someone' could well be one of the three best songs of the year so far. The other two are possibly 'Los Feeling' and 'Too Far Gone'.

Visitor MySpace.

Darwin might be interested in this...

Could Bright Light Bright Light (check the v clever myspace address when you click there) be the evolution of 2009's never-quite-took-off-but-labels-are-still-banging-them-out-androgynous-electro-pop-boys?

It's not overtly synth based, and he has a very lovely unaffected voice (bloody hell that was a bit talent show judge gushy). Yet there are a decent sprinkling of drum loops and twinkly effects to elevate it beyond singer songwriter territory. This boy should really get in touch with Starsmith.

Remember Sugababes Push The Button? Remember how it had something 'magic' in it. The magic thing which we couldn't quite put our finger on, but it made us fall in love with the track. Well pretty much every BLBL track has that 'magic' feeling. We can't quite put our finger(s) on what is wonderful, but there it is floating into our ears and being just wonderful. Wonderful.

He's playing Be @ Proud (sorry non-London folk for an irrelevant gig date) next Saturday. We're going to corner him and find out exactly how many times he has watched Gremlins.

Key-change of the year

Here is Mariah Carey covering 'I Wanna Know What Love Is' - the key change is both enormous and completely unexpected - which is quite something for a cover version.

And yes, there's a huge choir in it.

It's just a shame it finishes just as she gets going - we reckon she had another two or three minutes in her. We demand an extended version NOW.

We have no more words to say on the matter...

EXCEPT...someone keeps pulling the track off Youtube. We're just going to keep putting it back up. Enjoy the free publicity for your release.

Mariah Carey 'I Wanna Know What Love Is'

Some things are just fucking brilliant and we don't need a reason to post them

Just nipping to the Qemists

Hands up who is going to Reading or Leeds this weekend?

We're not. We're going to Neon Noise on Saturday and then Modular's Recession on Sunday. And then to bed on Monday.

But if you are attending 'ding or 'eeds can we suggest a band for you to check out. No, not Radio'boo-hoo-hoo-something-political-bring-down-the-goverment'head. Try The Qemists on for size. Think Enter Shikari meets Pendulum meets...actually that pretty much sums them up. And just pause for a moment to think how spectacuar that combination would be. Here's a clue:

Enter Shikari + Pendulum = Spectacular

So, there's irrefutable, mathematical proof that The Qemists are spectacular. If you need any more persuading have a listen to S.W.A.G (released back in June on the rather wonderful Ninja Tune)



And if that hasn't grabbed you by the ear lobes, go to their myspace and take a moment to savour their beefing up of Enter Shikari's 'No Sleep Tonight'. Bleeding ear drums all round (in a good way of course).

They're playing Bestival in a few weeks too. If anyone has a spare ticket Robot & Pigeon are both on the scrounge.

Robot has purchased a compact disc

Why are Mew not more popular than they are? Sigur Ros meets Muse. Simple. Some of it heartbreakingly delicate, the rest enormous stadium guitar pop which never stops short of completely and utterly gigantic. But, meh, they barely sell any records.

Well, they have sold one more this week becuase Robot has walked into a shop, picked up their new album 'No More Stories', taken it to the counter and exchanged it for some cash. It felt retro and cool. CDs are so hot right now.

The album is completely amazing and bares all the hallmarks of a Mew album. The huge songs, the angelic harmonies and the sensitive lyrics, all present. It may not quite top 'And The Glass Handed Kites' but it certainly equals 'Frengers'. It is a shame that 'Silas The Magic Car' is a bit of a letdown - but then there was probably no bettering that title.

Early favourites are 'Repeater Beater' and Arcade Fire inspired 'Sometimes Life Isn't Easy'.

Listen to 'No More Stories' on the Mew MySpace.

Buy the new Mew album in shops. You will find them either online or on the high street.

Strangled by fashion

One of JLS doesn't look very comfortable in his outfit here. No prize will be given for spotting who.

"Shakira, Shakira""Calvin Harris, Calvin Harris"

A few weeks ago, blogs and even our friends on social networking sites were all 'OMG new Shakira single wow' and so on and so forth.

We took a listen and were considerably underwhelmed with Shakira's 'She-Wolf' single. It had better verses than it did a chorus - and that's not a good sign for any pop single. Plus her howls were distinctly unimpressive - and those have got to be the most important part of any song about werewolves.

Simple solution though, just get Calvin Harris on the case right? He'll sort it out, turn it into a big club smash and put excitement into the bits where there isn't any right? Right? Well, no not really. Despite every bell, whistle, cowbell, whoosh and zappy noise Calvin can muster up, there's just no turning this OK song into something amazing. And the howls sound even less convincing in Calvin's remix.

Still, she looks beyond AMAZING in the video, so that's got to count for something.

This'll teach us to leave emails festering in our inbox

If we'd listened to 'The Beginning of Human' by Radio Alone Together when we were sent it earlier in the month we'd have posted it with some gushing text along the lines of 'OMG it's like a fucked up rave Fannypack' from Japan.

That'll teach us. 'The Beginning of Being Human' is quite brilliant and is indeed like a fucked up Fannypack from Japan.

We'll not lie to you though, the rest of the tracks on this download link are a complete racket.

'The Beginning of Being Human' is worth investigation though, sampling rave, orchestras, choirs and hip-hop - it's a little bit mental but is totally brillant. It has us itching for the weekend although we doubt we'll hear anything like this in London, no matter where we go.

Download 'The Beginning of Human' here. Download the others at your own PERIL.

Radio Alone Together on MySpace.

Were you hoping to have a listen to Alexandra Burke's 'Bad Boys' single on YouTube anytime soon?

Well you can't. The internet police are out and every trace of 'Bad Boys' by Alexandra Burke is being swept away as soon as anyone uploads anything with the words Alexandra, Burke, Bad or Boys. Here is what we are left with:
After all, no one has ever had a hit single after someone has taped a low quality version from the radio, put together a montage of photos of the artist in question and then posted the clip onto YouTube, have they?

Another thought: there can't be many jobs on this earth more miserable than sweeping the internet and removing things you've been told by your boss need removing.

A bit late, but lets not Grum-ble

We're not going to pretend we 'discovered' this or are posting this due to our close relationship with Grum - the 'Heartbeats' video has been all over 'the blogs' and the song has even been featured on Popjustice.

So we're not just a little late on this, we're practically not bothering at all.

But here is the video to Grum's amazingly brilliant 'Heartbeats' which we do think is very good and the official release gives us reason to perhaps ditch the really low quality MP3 of the Edwin Van Cleef remix we've been listening to for the past few months when this is released on October 26.

See how we slipped a release date in there? It's like we're a proper website or something.

Halloween is very sune

Sorry, that doesn't really work does it? Sune - soon - Kitsune - Halloween.

Basically, the next Kitsune night in London just so happens to fall on Halloween, which is bloody brilliant if you ask us because it will hopefully be the only place IN THE WESTERN WORLD where you won't see anyone with their face painted like fucking Heath Ledger's Joker.

Yuksek is performing live (he is spending a lot of time in London at the moment - we're surprised not to have bumped into him on the Victoria Line on the way to work) and we will know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing after we have been to the Easten Electrics 'thing' this weekend. He is headlining that too - although as a DJ. It is in a car park. Amazing.

Here's the not-all-that informative flyer for the Halloween thing.

Pros and cons of the new The Saturdays single, 'Forever Is Over'

Someone recently asked us, had we heard the new single by The Saturdays. "Not yet" we replied, "why, is it good?"

"Yes!" They said, "it's amazing."

That was a few days ago, and having now heard 'Forever Is Over' we reckon they weren't too far from the mark, it is very good, although we're hardly blown away by the whole package. First, here's the video.



Now, lets look at the pros and cons.

PROS:

1. It's a good song.
2. The video is very good.
3. They all sound great (special nod to Rochelle on this one).
4. They are all exceptionally beautiful.

CONS:

1. This is The Saturday's moment and they need to seize it. With Girls Aloud out of action, they won't get a better chance to establish themselves as one of the UK's top pop bands. 'Forever Is Over' is not their best single so far - it's no 'Up'.

2. This single does not have the impact that a first single from a second album needs to make. It doesn't have the wow-factor that Girls Alouds 'The Show' or Sugababes' 'Freak Like Me' had. It could have come from their first album.

3. The Saturday's haven't been notably absent from the charts for this to seem like any sort of grand return or them making a stake at pop-superstardom. The last single from their first album, 'Work' was in the charts less than two months ago, there's been no gap. This doesn't feel like a comeback, it feels like the next to drop from a pop conveyor belt.

4. The guitar pop sound reminds us far too much of the tat churned out by Disney projects such as Ashley Tisdale. If you're going to try this sound then you need a 'My Life Would Suck Without You' or there's not a lot of point.

But let's get one thing straight, we really like The Saturdays and think this is a good song, but this just doesn't have the impact we'd have hoped, especially with Mini Viva and even Girls Can't Catch making marks for themselves on the pop world.

We think 'Wednesday afternoon' is more appropriate for this one.

The best song ever written about the 28th President of the United States

Anyone who writes lyrics which rhyme 'Woodrow Wilson' with 'carry my children', then base their chorus around the refrain 'you're the shit girl', and then put some upbeat guitar led disco backing behind it, then make a video to accompany the words and music that looks like this:



Are pretty much amazing by our reckoning. Thing is, Boy Crisis have already been and done that. So what next? Well, they go and top it with a track called 'Fountain Of Youth', that's bloody what.



Two youtube videos embedded in one post? It can only mean two things: 1. We love this band a lot. 2. Pigeon's useless old PC is about to crash.

Gold Medall

Robot's post on his very good new favourite band™ Dyno (those with a short memory see below) reminded Pigeon to write about his very good old favourite new band (they've been around a while now) Medallist.

The specific memory jogger was the bit in Dyno's 'DESTROY! DESTROY!' that goes "Destroy, destroy". It sounds like the bit in Medallist's 'Respond' (no caps or exclamation here) that goes "Respond, respond". We'd call this section in both songs a refrain I suppose.

So, a bit about Medallist:

i. They sound like Muse's younger sibling. This is a good thing.

b. The new tracks on the myspace sound like Muse's younger sibling have been listening to Enter Shikari. This is also a good thing.

3. They do not have a standard myspace layout. This suggests some sort of industry involvement. This is a good thing.

iv. The tracks on their myspace are all very good. We like 'Communicate' the best. This is a good thing.

e. Pigeon has go their track 'Respond' on his iPod, and it is amazing, but he has no idea where it came from and it's not on their myspace any more. This doesn't make much of a difference to Pigeon's life, but is not a good thing for anyone who doesn't already have it on their iPod.

6. You can get a free EP here. Free music is always a good thing (maybe not for the band, but that's more something for a dissertation than a blog post).

DESTROY! DESTROY! AMAZING! AMAZING!

We have just heard the biggest chorus of 2009.

Written with both captial letters and exclamation marks, 'DESTROY! DESTROY!' by Swedish trio Dyno could be italicised, underlined and written in comic sans and it still wouldn't come close to how unspeakably exciting this song is. We are actually concerned here that we don't have words big enough to convince enough people to go and listen to the song.

We'd usually put the MySpace link at the end of a piece like this, but fuck that: here is the link to Dyno's MySpace.

We urge you to give just 3.22 seconds of your life over to 'DESTROY! DESTROY!' by Dyno.

We'll try a description: Take all the best pop songs by men from the eighties and throw in a bit of commercial 00's emo and you (and we) are still nowhere near close to getting this description right. DAMN IT. It's got a really ugly fade-out though.

Just bloody well listen.

Ummmm, the other songs on the Dyno MySpace are pretty good as well. 'Emotional' comes close to 'DESTROY! DESTROY!' is more of a pop song and will make a worthy second single once 'DD' has been a Number One single across the world. There's a hint of Keane in 'Emotional' but don't let that put you off.

'Too Close' sounds like Scissor Sisters meets The Feeling and 'Don't Speak Love' is the greatest Swedish song never to have been entered into the Eurovision song contest.

Dyno are officially Robot's favourite new band.

Saturday Slaughterbrains mixtape

Now essentially, Slaughterbrains are 'one of Pigeons' but this is a good opportunity for Robot to chip in and say: 'yes, I agree, Slaughterbrains are very good aren't they'.

After their rather brilliant work on Visitor's 'Los Feeling', a Slaughterbrains mixtape has now been splattered across the internet and it's bloody brilliant, and even if it's only 20 minutes long, you can think of it as squeezing an amazing night out into a space of time shorter than an episode of Neighbours.

You might think, with the name and the imagery that Slaughterbrains are pretty heavy - but they're not. The mixtape covers hip-hop, eighties, nineties, house, electro and pop and is brilliantly paced with perfectly timed dips and switches. It's so good it's even made us rethink Amanda Blank's 'I Might Like You Better' single, which we weren't keen on until now, although the mix with Modjo's 'Lady' might have something to do with our change of heart.

Also on the mix are Yuksek, Florence & The Machine, Digital Foxglove, Flashmen, Oizo and a load of other really good people over the course of a thoroughly enjoyable 20 minutes.

Download: Slaughterbrains Mixtape.

Slaughterbrains on MySpace

He Is Noxious

In brief: I Am Noxious is Calvin Harris meets LCD Soundsystem, with a leaning more towards the latter than the former.

Boy singing over dance beats. A nineties influence in the production and an Alexis Taylor hint to the vocals. Lovely and uplifting but at the same time spooky and introspective.

I Am Noxious is also completely amazing and we are slightly bowled over by the quality of the songs on his MySpace page. Each track is a miniature masterpiece and when we've posted this we're going straight back to have another listen.

In order of preference for the current I Am Noxious songs currently 'out there' our feelings are thus:

1. 'Caught In The Snow (In The Summer)' (starts slow and small and turns into something much bigger. A tiny little epic. Sounds, in places, like Erasure)
2. 'Left & Right' (the nineties one)
3. 'We Pray' (cowbells and what sounds like Pointer Sisters' 'Jump' sample but actually isn't)

So to recap on I Am Noxious:

Boy.
Amazing.
Dance music.
Amazing.
Calvin Harris.
Amazing.
LCD Soundsystem.
Amazing.
Hot Chip.
Amazing.
Erasure.
Amazing.
Pointer Sisters.
Amazing.

Here is a link to his very pink MySpace page.

Pfft, it's a doddle this blogging lark, innit?

Download the Blänk album for free and without threat of prosecution

Eurotrash is back. Well, it is if you're a fan of Blänk, potentially the greatest Swedish pop band of all time. Among a few others. We wrote about their amazingly slutty hip-hop-pop-junk earlier in the year and now they have finally got an album together.

Obviously you'll be able to go into all the stores and buy the album (and by all the stores we mean iTunes) but, if you prefer, you can download the album from brilliant Discobelle blog.

It's called 'You've Never Been To Sapmi' and they are correct, we have never been to Sapmi.

Here's the link to go and get yourself a free album.

Blänk on MySpace.

New Visitor song, new amazingness

If we were to describe Visitor after seeing them live on Wednesday night at Goldust playing alongside Frankmusik and Erik Hassle we'd say this: Amazing.

If we were to describe them in nineteen words we'd say this: Amazing! Better than Erik Hassle and Frankmusik and in fact, they were the best band we saw at Goldust.

We were worried they'd just do 'Los Feeling' four or five times in a row, because before Wednesday that was the beginning and end of Visitor's repertoire as far as we were concerned. But we were wrong, they had loads of songs and they were all very good indeed. We reckon they're closer to having an album finished than the one song on their MySpace page had led us to believe.

The best new track of the night was 'Too Far Gone', and like 'Los Feeling' it's a huge eighties pop song which will make you dance but is also about a break-up. Dancing about heartbreak seems to be their speciality, and having heard more of their songs we've fallen properly in love with this band. There are so many 'boy-bands' around London right now doing the eighties pop thing and so few of them get it right - whereas, with just a handful of songs and a couple of gigs, Visitor have got it nailed.

Download: Visitor 'Too Far Gone'

Also, they're bloody brilliant live. Which helps matters.

Visitor MySpace

Remember this?

No, us either. It's pretty good in a here's-another-beat-heavy-girl-singer-dance-hit-from-Hed-Kandi type way though. So why are we writing about it? We'll tell you why. Because of H-Boogie, that's why. H-whoogie? H-Boogie. She has a famous sister, but that's by the by. She's certainly no *tumble weed* Solange Knowles.

Imagine Booty Luv went on a cruise with ol' souraface La Roux. H-Boogie's tracks might be the musical equivalent of the sound of their conversations floating out across the sea. There's a handful of tracks on the myspace. 'Freaks Come Out' is catchy as hell after a couple of listens (she should hook up with Slaughterbrains), whilst 'On The Floor' has enough going for it (the annunciation on te-le-phone is particularly endearing) that Eurthymics might call it a 'Sweet Dreams homage' rather than an 'impending lawsuit'.

But it's 'The Radio' that's got us drooling all over the floor. It is bloody, bloody brilliant and should be on 'the radio' right effing now. No doubt in the very near future Pigeon will find himself awoken at some ungodly hour by this blasting from Robot's bedroom. A few more like this and H-Boogie is sorted.

Errrrrr... Wow. Just wow.

There's pop music and then there's pop music. Sometimes you can talk about pop music and mean something like Hockey or Hadouken! and then other times you just mean Britney and Kylie. Kiss In Cities are definitely in the latter category - although their closest point of reference is Bananarama. No bad thing, especially since the new Bananarama single is a bit brilliant.

Words almost fail us on how incredible these two are. As well as Bananarama, there's bits of Cyndi Lauper, Mel & Kim, Fuzzbox and other brilliant old girl pop in their music. At the same time, Girls Aloud could get away with recording the songs on Kiss In Cities MySpace, or at least Girls Aloud circa-second album could have gotten away with it. There's nothing here that sounds like 'The Promise'.

Best of the brilliant bunch on their MySpace would probably be the jumpy 'Colours' and the enormous mid-tempo 'Human Remains'. It's so close to being a ballad but not quite - 'Dominoes' is closer still, it sounds a bit like T'Pau (T-BLOODY-PAU people, see, that's how good they are).

Kiss In Cities are the sort of band the BBC will be tipping for success in 2010 (if people are still listening to pop music by then). This is glam-pop at it's most brilliant. Kiss In Cities are the sort of band who make pop music worth writing about. WE LOVE THEM and think you will too.

Kiss In Cities MySpace. Amazing, amazing, amazing etc.

Success is just a Song Away (or not)

If Hockey can't get themselves a hit single with 'Song Away' then they really may as well pack up and go and get themselves proper jobs. If this was three years ago then they would already be massive - and therein probably lies the problem. Bloody La Roux spoiling it for boys and guitars and making everyone like pop music again...

'Song Away' is our favourite song on their album and the video looks a lot like a Levis advert. Lol look at the funny geeks dancing etc - it's actually worryingly reminiscent of Robot and Pigeon going out in Shoreditch and being 'those weirdos' on the dancefloor. (Oh God there is a dance we used to do to 'Fascination' by Alphabeat. Flashback).

Anyway, we are actually definitely cool. And so are Hockey.

Bring your daughter etc

To the Slaughterbrains. Everyone loves a bit of horror right? Even our friend who had to put her hoodie over her head for the enitre duration of Creep said "That was good." (it wasn't). And everyone loves a bit of dance. Even our mum who listened to Chewy Chocolate Cookies and put her fingers in her ears and said "it sounds like a dentist's drill" (it did a bit). Therefore, everyone is going to love Slaughterbrains.

They are part Edwin Van Cleef, part Justice, part Freddy Kruger. There's a strong film tie in. Blood On The Streets is possibly our favourite. Borrowing heavily from Carpenter's Halloween theme, but more in essence than sample per se. The only thing letting it down is that the picture accompanying the track is from Halloween: Resurrection (*SPOILER ALERT* you know, the one where Laurie finally dies and Busta Rhymes is a tv producer making killer Big Brother or something).

And, along with the slew of great tracks, there's a class remix of Visitor's Los Feeling. I don't think we've mentioned that on here before.....

As Dannii will probably say on X Factor this Saturday - 'You've got the full package. Banging beats, some bloody logos, a strong horror identity, massive potential. You could press it tomorrow and make a hit ricord.'

Robot might have gone to school with the Hadouken! mouse

When Robot was young he would go to school in Cornwall on an FT Williams bus which would bolt it down country lanes at about seventy miles an hour and only pick up pupils for school if the driver was in the mood or didn't have an appointment with a probation officer later that morning.

And now Hadouken!'s new video shows a giant mouse (Martyn Thomas, apparently) trying to buy a bottle of Strongbow with an FT Williams bus-pass. Cornwall County council indeed.

The video is a bit violent. The song could do with a tune. But the bus pass makes up for all that.

Great band, not sure about the name

There's a reason that people buy into the baby names book market. And on a list of things that are important when starting a band 'the name' probably comes somewhere between 'the music' and 'the haircuts'. You want something memorable, myspaceable and not too annoying. So our first piece of advice (you're welcome by the way) for Natalie Portman's Shaved Head is change your effing name. For one thing it's grown back already, and for another in years to come when people are still playing your music on their i-earimplantpods they will be asking why the hell you chose such a stupid name. And then there's the issue of having to remember the apostrophe in 'Portman's', but leaving it out for website addresses, which just confuses the grammar illiterate. NPSH is is pretty good. Although people might think you're a dyslexic trying to write a letter to the NHS.

But name aside, for we are not an etymology blog, we really like NPSH. Like really, really like. 'Me + Yr Daughter'. It's a bit of a rough edged 80s offcut. Think Alphabeat after they've been out to play in the mud. A nice upbeat remix will make this massive. We particularly like the assonance of 'daughter' and 'hotter', good work. 'Slow Motion Tag Team' is a bit like kicking Scissor Sisters down the stairs. We are a big fan of the multi-vocalist approach to this whole affair.

The tracks feel like they need a little beefing up (Hey! Mr Producer) but what with the recent success of 3OH3, La Roux and Empire Of The Sun (all of whom could draw comparison here, but none would be particularly accurate) in the top 40, we wouldn't be surprised if some UK labels come sniffing round this lot soon.

Sunday Worship

A band we used to like called Fox Cubs were planning on using the name Worship for their new stuff. They had better rethink that plan, since there's already a Swiss band doing quite well for themselves under the same name already.

We don't know much about Switzerland. Cuckoo clocks and tax haven is all that spirings to mind - windmills and dykes also. Are we playing to national stereotypes here? (The Nation of Switzerland: 'YES', The Rest of The World: 'GET THE FUCK ON WITH IT ALREADY').

So. Worship mix danceable eighties electro ('Fat Love') with Air-inspired atmospheric moodiness ('Underwater') and Discovery-era Daft Punk ('Lights'). It's all very impressive indeed and would, at the correct and respective volumes, blow your head off in a club and at the same time make the perfect soundtrack to an arty film about good looking people going somewhere in a car. Nice jellyfish in their artwork too. And some boobs.

We have learned a few things about Switzerland today and it isn't even 11am. We have learned that A. they make music with the same influences as every other electro-pop band across Europe and B. they do it very well.

Go Worship.

Way better than bunsen burners and magnesium sulphate

Take a long hard look at the above picture of The Scientists of Modern Music and take a guess what sort of music they might make.

Yep, that's right. Here we have another acoustic/folk/adult contemporary band. What we would give for an Australian electro-pop duo right now eh?

But we jest. The Scientists of Modern Music ARE in fact an Australian electro-pop duo. And a damn good one at that. The formula these 'so called' Scientists have come up with is a fairly straightforward 1+1 sort of equation, and the maths is simple. Ladytron + Pendulum = The Scientists of Modern Music (lets go with the abreviation TSOMM from here).

In Australia they've supported The Presets, Midnight Juggernauts, Van She and The Galvatrons (among others) so they're well connected.

Lets see what else we can learn/steal from their Wikipedia entry:
'TSOMM have created a buzz which is resonating withing Australia, and 2009 is set to steer them into infinity upon release of their album.' Which says to us two things.

1. They have an album coming. This is good.
2. Their Wikipedia page has had some professional input and wasn't written by the usual internet goons lol!!!!1!!!!

So don't go to the Wikipedia page. Go to their MySpace page. That's the one with things that move and do music.

When you get there make sure you listen to eighties glam-rock-ish 'Easy', the Hot Chip sound-a-like 'For You' and the extra-terrestrial sounding 'Electronic Sunset (live)'.

Oh, but before you go, here's the video for 'Easy'.

Nice lady, nice song

She's not the greatest singer in the world and hasn't really turned out all that many decent singles so far, but there's something exceptionally likeable about Estelle. She turns the new Busta Rhymes single more than just another new Busta Rhymes single and while she's no vocal powerhouse like Kelly Rowland, her David Guetta collaboration is pretty special and, considering how run-of-the-mill the Guetta and Akon single is, 'One Love' has to be a sure-thing as a future single.

Full of big nineties-house piano parts, 'One Love' sounds a lot like Guetta's own 'A Little More Love' but with a bit of old school rave band Alex Party thrown in for good luck. The production is kinda low-key for David Guetta while on the vocals, Estelle does that smoky, atmospheric street diva thing she's doing so well. Lets just hope she can do it on one of her own songs soon.

David Guetta feat. Estelle 'One Love'

Do Sugababes have another hole in the head?

Sorry, but we can't make head nor tails when it comes to Sugababes right now. We don't even believe they know what's going on with their current approach to their music and career. Not satisfied with stealing great lumps of Right Said Fred, Pussycat Dolls and Black Eyed Peas for 'Get Sexy', they've now gone and thrown a Hadouken! mix into the whole 'comeback' melting pot - one that was already quite full enough thank you very much.

They seem to have forgotten that too many cooks tend to spoil the soup. However in this case we've got cooks, chefs, kitchen hands, catering students, waiters and even the kid who washes the dishes on a saturday getting in on the act. The remix isn't bad but seriously, considering where Hadouken! are going with their new music and where Sugababes have been with theirs, this remix is going to appeal to the very few people who have time for both bands.

It's not a bad piece of work, it's more just an unfathomable piece of work.

Listen to what Hadouken! have done with 'Get Sexy' at the Hadouken! MySpace.

Feel like perhaps we've dug ourselves into a hole here...

But the Visitor 'Los Feeling' remixes really are coming thick and fast (THERE HAVE BEEN TWO). We really can't write about every single one, can we?

ANSWER: No.

Here is the Dav3 Martin mix. It's a bit gay and a bit good.

The Young Punx - bit older, still not very punk

Do you know who's amazing? The Young Punx, that's who. Their 'Your Music Is Killing Me' single was an absolutely amazing track and one we tend to forget about for months on end, remember and then listen to repeatedly before putting back on the metaphorical MP3 shelf to gather dust for a while.

But it never really happened for them in the UK. Which is sad. So they went to Japan instead. 'Big in Japan' once meant that the Japanese music consumers would happily shell out for all the old shit that UK listeners had gotten tired of, but recently Japanese music fans have been clever enough to leap upon some of the alternative electro bands the UK has been foolish enough to let slip. Most notably The Whip and now The Young Punx.

The Young Punx new track 'Rock Star (Understand)' is nothing like 'Your Music Is Killing Me'. It's got a woman singing on it for a start, and their success in Japan has clearly influenced their sound as the furious, upbeat sound of j-pop is all over this track and even more so on the Shinichi Osawa remix, who previously worked his magic on The Whip's 'Fire'.

Show The Young Punx that Britain is still interested by downloading this single. There are outlets you can find it for free, but that'll just send them scuttling back to Japan...

The Young Punx on MySpace.

THIS IS NOT PORN - this is a new video from a lady called Shena

Usually, these faces would not be considered ones to be pulled by a nice lady. However, these are just a selection of unfortunately captured images from Shena's new video, 'Nasty Little Rumour'.

No one is ever going to accuse Shena of spending too much money on the video. However, she might be accused of making up for the clear lack of budget (the London Lite is a key prop for goodness sakes) with a sense of humour.

The video is mainly funny because of the black ladies pulling funny faces and wearing silly glasses. Little Miss Jocelyn could get a whole series out of this video.

Shena is incredibly nineties but that, we guess, is all part of the charm. 'Nasty Little Rumour' is the third single from her upcoming debut album, although as rumours go, the only people we've noticed saying anything about Shena and this single are the more excitable bloggers out there. We just think the song is quite jolly and quite catchy and saying that we think this does not damage our masculinity in any way.

Let the Visitor 'Los Feeling' remixes begin...

Every time we hear 'Los Feeling' by Visitor it's hard not to A. smile and B. wonder why we weren't already listening to it. There's not a song in 2009 that has made Robot happier - even if the words are a bit sad.

And like all good pop singles on their way to general release and widespread acclaim and, potentially, the Top Ten, there are remixes to be sifted through, and the Flashmen Remix is the first we've heard. Flashmen leave 'Los Feeling' sounding no less eighties, but ditch a little of the epic glamour of the original and replace it with something a little edgier and a little dirtier. Or at the very least, Flashmen rough it up a little around the edges. 'Los Feeling' is never going to be 'edgy' and 'dirty' - it's too bloody uplifting to ever be either.

Anyway, let's end this waffle. Have a listen at the Flashmen MySpace.

A video with a fallopian tube metaphor

Yes, yes, yes we had to look up how to spell 'fallopian', ok? We hope we're not reading too much into the new Sound Of Arrows video, but our critical criticalism studies definitely make us think there's a gold baby in the box:

The Sound of Arrows - Into the Clouds (Music video) from The Sound of Arrows on Vimeo.

Pigeon also liked seeing our cousin the Eagle flying around. Have the band been catching up on old episodes of Bravestar? We always used to turn off after the credits though. Looks like it might have been more entertaining in German 'Ein Wulf und ein Bear!'



Enough rambling, get to the point Pigeon. So the point is what a great little video from an emerging band. It's really nice to see:

a) some effort
ii) some thought
3)some creativity

and all on (we assume) a limited budget. We really like the continuity of theme from the M.A.G.I.C promo, and there's some lovely animation in there. The song is pretty bloody ace too.

*CAPS LOCK ON* We really are very excited about this band.

Album review: Hockey 'Mind Chaos' (yes we do those from time to time you know)

As they prepare to release their debut album in the UK, the problem Hockey are now facing is knowing they shot their load far too early in releasing their stand-out track, ‘Too Fake’ as their first single. They should have started with less of a bang and more of a bump.

However, as the debut Hockey album proves, ‘stand-out’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘best’. So while the anthemic qualities of ‘Too Fake’ are already the band’s commercially underwhelming calling-card, the album does boast several other moments of indie-punk brilliance.

Most notably, the ‘best’ track on the album is the seventies pop influenced ‘Song Away’, with a lightweight guitar sound reminiscent of days before indie music came hand in hand with bad manners and bad attitude. ‘Song Away’ is a simple, straightforward and well meaning pop song, and all the better for it. Watch their Jools Holland performance of ‘Song Away’ here.

Also worth a mention is second single (also a flop) ‘Learn To Lose’, which sounds worryingly like a Razorlight track – but a Razorlight track recorded with the windows open and the egos checked at reception. ‘Wanna Be Black’, is a disco influenced indie-dance track, with a bass riff straight out of seventies clubs and vocals straight out of every Barfly gig from 2000 onwards.

Also brilliant is the country and western influenced (‘influenced’? What are we saying, it’s a straight up country song), ‘Four Holy Photos’ shows a softer side to Hockey and also shows that at least one of the band knows their way around a harmonica. The country influence is a one-off on the album, but an interesting and welcome aside.

Hockey’s debut album is an excellent introduction to this US five-piece, and were the current music climate different, theirs would have already been a swift ascension into the public consciousness. However, learning the same lesson as The Virgins did with their barely-noticed release earlier in the year, it takes more than a group of handsome skinny boys with a decent album to make an impact. Although what, apart from an involvement with La Roux or Lady GaGa, is beyond us – and it's probably best for all involved that they keep their distance.

In conclusion: ‘Mind Chaos’ by Hockey is a little bit brilliant. 36/10.

'Mind Chaos' is released 21 September 2009.

Erik Hassle goes truly international

So Erik Hassle, the bouffant haired Swedish popstar, working on his launch in the UK, goes to America to make the video for his first British single.

Did no one learn anything from what happened to Little Boots when she debuted with an Americanised video? Not a lot, that’s what happened to Little Boots.

Still at least Erik Hassle isn’t dancing round with a load of tramps and/or wearing a shiny blue dress in his video - as Little Boots did in her 'New In Town'. He’s just picked up two new friends who aren’t really friends but are actually models/extras hired on location to pad out the video. We know how these things work. Clever see.

Here’s his ‘Don’t Bring Flowers’ video. Great song.

Booty Luv: the greatest duo in the history of all music

Forget Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Forget Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Forget even PJ & Duncan - when people in the future look back to our era, the one musical pairing that will stand out from all the others is Booty Luv.

Nadia and Cherise are two of the most brilliant women in pop music. Their new single 'Say It' is potentially their best release to date. There is, however, one thing better than listening to a Booty Luv single - and that's watching the video for a Booty Luv single.



Now, it's not exactly an epic, but it does the trick right?

Things are looking pretty good for Booty Luv right now - as they are for all female pop groups at the moment. Girls Aloud's year long break means great things for The Saturdays (and even Girls Can't Catch have cracked the Top Forty) while the new Sugababes stuff is iffy and without character at best (and that's coming from the half of this blog who thought 'Get Sexy' was amazing at first). There are huge lady-shaped gaps appearing in the pop world, and no shortage of contenders trying to wedge themselves in those spaces. It's like some sort of highly-styled and expensively produced pop version of Cinderella - but lets just hope no one goes so far as chopping their toes off to try and fit in.

The easy option after the moderate success of Booty Luv's first album would have been to slide off the map, and possibly, no one would have ever noticed they had gone. However, now they're back, we can honestly say that the pop world at large is a much happier place.

Question: new artwork by which sort-of-pop band looks like this?

Answer: Hadouken!.

There were two ways Hadouken! could have gone after their first album. One was to chase after commercial success with tracks along the lines of 'Declaration of War' and the other was to strive for the same sort of hardcore mainstream mega-success afforded to the likes of Enter Shikari and - well - just Enter Shikari. A niche market you might say.

Needless to say, the artwork for new single 'Mad' doesn't suggest that Hadouken! are playing nice on their second album.

To be honest, we're actually glad they've followed the latter and have become all bloody and nasty, because with soaring, eighties influenced electro-pop coming out of our ears and every other orifice at the moment, it's good to hear something a bit harder and a bit edgier. The band got totally lost in the sea of East London indie-grindie-techno-blahblah the first time around, and the last thing they'd have wanted would to have been considered another one of those bands snapping at La Roux's Nike hi-tops second time around.

Melody wise (if you can call it a melody), new single 'Mad' sounds most similar to 'Get Smashed, Gate Crash' but the message is a whole lot darker than the party atmosphere of that track. The lyrics are about smashing people's heads rather than smashing china and being sick on the landing.

Check it out 'Mad' at Hadouken!'s MySpace.

Stop what you are doing and listen to Calvin Harris' amazing next-next single, 'Flashback'

Suddenly, the new Calvin Harris single makes sense. 'Ready For The Weekend' exists only be that not-quite-so-exciting single destined to sit sandwiched between two pieces of 90s influenced commercial electro-pop which are works of complete and utter genius. The works in question are 'I'm Not Alone' and future single 'Flashback'.

All you need to know is this:

'FLASHBACK' IS BLOODY GOOD.

To expand on that: 'Flashback' is a truly, truly excellent pop single with a completely superfluous (but all the more amazing for it's disposable nature) female chorus. 'Flashback' is amazing from start to finish. May our love affair with Calvin Harris recommence.

Calvin Harris 'Flashback'

FACT: The party don't start until Ke$ha walks in

If 'Tick Tock' by Ke$ha isn't a worldwide Top Ten hit within the next 12 months Robot will eat his hat. Or maybe just go into Pigeon's bedroom and eat his hat when he's not in.

We're pretty sure of the success of 'Tick Tock', not only because it's one of the most unspeakably upbeat, irresistable pieces of pop music we've heard since Alphabeat flew over from Denmark but because it's got a ruddy dance routine.

Here is a video of Ke$ha demonstrating said routine in Hollywood. We don't think it will be too hard to pick up.



Good yes?

Put it away, Frankmusik

It's not as if Frankmusik needs much more help shifting copies of his album, since it's apparently heading for the Top Ten, but there's certainly no harm in helping things along a little bit with some pointless semi-nudity is there?

But everything could change before the end of the week and we look forward to finding out if all those people who didn't buy 'Better Off As Two' and 'Confusion Girl' remember to buy the album. We will hold our breath until Sunday's Top Forty countdown.

neXtMEN

The video for Nextmen's 'Lion's Den' has popped up online, and, just like the track, it's bloody brilliant. It might even convince Robot that he likes it because he's into all this cartoon/superhero business.



Pigeon is going to follow how this one does commercially with great interest. We reckons it could appeal to the masses if it's presented in the right way. Here's what needs to happen:

1. Ms. Dynamite needs to appear on 4Music and all other yoof tv to promote it.
b. The video needs to hit the myspace homepage.
iii. OR if the budget stretches then the video needs to be put up with the trailers in front of the new GI Joe film.
4. Someone like Calvin Harris needs to do a 'vs' remix to get played on daytime Radio 1.
v. promotional action figures please.

Ta-da. Top 40 hit.

So if you've got any sense you'll be buying your tickets for this today

That's the Eastern Electrics festival, in full. But we'll point you to the bit that is really exciting.

We can say with some honesty that the Neon Noise nights are some of the best in London, amazing music, amazing people and amazing... Oh fuck it, this is all you really need to know:

We know, amazing right?

Here we go again with Dragonette...

Like the naughty boy who sets fire to things at the back of the class not because he's naughty but because he's far too clever for his own good and will probably go on to find a cure for cancer it's another case of 'Oh Dragonette, what ARE we going to do with you'.

Robot quite eloquently summed up the problem with their debut Galore in words similar but not identical to these "It's too gay for men to like, and women don't like a pretty lady singing songs telling them she slept with their boyfriend". Also, Mercury fucked up somewhere along the line with its promotion didn't they? Because Galore was flawless. Not one perfectly coiffured track out of place. And yet the only thing we can really say about Dragonette when explaining them to people is 'they're big in Canada'.

And now here pops up 'Gone Too Far'. It looks like some sort of unofficial (read: official) leak, complete with 'meh' viral video.



If 'Gone Too Far' has been leaked because it's been dropped from the album we can't wait to hear what replaced it, but if it's been leaked to test its viability as a single then this campaign needs a quick rethink. They've already given away 'Fixin' To Thrill', which was EPIC and could have smashed the Radio 1 playlist. We just don't understand where the Dragonette roller-coaster is heading.

We heard a few of the new album tracks (our local newsagent gave them to us on a CD marked 'Top Secret' wrapped in a copy of Elle), which are every bit as good as Galore complete with a bigger whiff of accessibility. But this campaign needs real thought and careful planning. Since Galore's release La Roux and Little Boots have paved the way for female fronted electro, but the powers that be need to be careful they don't send Martina storming out in high heels and smashing up the path.

Don't try and be clever. Get a great remix (a la Skream), get Annie Mac on the case, go to whichever plugger got Frankmusik on the A list, get a track on a car advert and the rest of the album is so solid that it will sell itself. Dragonette have got the songs, they just need the break.

Robot gets on his big gay high horse

The new Veronicas video 'Take Me On The Floor' is as unremarkable as their last. Ho hum pretty girls sing quite-good pop song in vaguely emo club. So far, so The Veronicas. Here's the video - but 'here's the video' is not the point of this post.



Unremarkable indeed - but what does stand out in this song and video is the rather ghastly middle-eight 'I want to kiss a girl/I want to kiss a boy'. Such shoehorning of pretend gayness (The Veronicas are twin sisters remember) makes Katy Perry's faux-lesbianisms on 'I Kissed A Girl' seem almost convincing.

Since when did being gay girls become so cool? Why are same-sex relationships now a selling point for female artists - while at the same time why must people like Frankmusik spend their interviewed life dodging questions on their sexuality, in case the suggestion of any interest in boy-on-boy action upsets the already precarious apple-cart of a career.

It's worrying really, as the only 2009 gay event in pop music as far as the boys are concerned is the half-coming out of Duncan James (brave move or band reunion stunt?). Preened, pouting and posing, Duncan James is hardly an ambassador for gay men in the same manner that Katy Perry and now The Veronicas are - making gay girls beyond acceptable, and making it aspirational. It seems as if lesbians are adopting a new, positive stereotype while gay boys in pop are stuck either in a world of androdgyny or buried beneath fake tan and dance routines. After all, when was the last time anyone asked any of Kings of Leon whether they preferred sex with men or women? Those questions are saved for the likes of Vince Frank - he's small, pale and got fussy hair, he's got to be hiding a bit of gayness right? Right? *sigh*

What's worse, looking further afield in the media, the only major gay cultural icon of 2009 looks like this:


We're totally going lez.

I want you Black

Cosmo Black that is, a rather special young man (not special needs) from Australia, who has possibly the most eclectic sounding tracks on his MySpace we've heard in a long time. Some might say there is schizophrenic nature to his music - but let's not get back to special needs.

The rundown sort of goes like this:

Dissssco: Could be passed off as a Calvin Harris track. An album track, but a Calvin Harris track nonetheless. Got monks singing on it. Download 'Disssco' here.

Gimme Some Lovin: Remember Sonny J's amazing 'Can't Stop Moving?' Well this is an awful lot like that. Big seventies soul sample, big retro dance treatment. Very, very good.

Monkey Man: Another seventies influenced one, this one more Pam Grier than Jackson 5. There's a touch of The Avalanches to it also.

Dia De Los Muetos: Strange flamenco guitar track which reminds us of the Santa Esmerelda's 'Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood' masterpiece. This is a mini-masterpiece too, albeit more ambient and atmospheric. Download 'Dia De Los Muetos' here'

There are also remixes of 'Ace of Spades', 'I Want You Back' (hence the title of this piece) and 'House of Jealous Lovers'. The first two oddly downbeat and the latter a brilliant guitar-sodden mess.

And then there's the cover version.

Most people in their right mind know that 'Embrace' by Pnau and Ladyhawke is one of the best singles never to be released in the UK. Cosmo Black's acoustic cover of this does everything an acoustic version of a dance track ought to - instead of dancing and singing, it forces you to listen to the song in question. A mistake in some instances, but 'Embrace' more than stands up to the scrutiny - with the 'still got to die for someone' proving particularly emotive.

So that's a lot to get through right?

It's all bloody brilliant though, which doesn't make it so much of a slog, or any slog whatsoever.

Listen to Cosmo Black at his MySpace page - which is what we've been banging on about for the past few paragraphs of witter.

Basement Jaxx spring another leak

When Santigold was asked to appear on the new Basement Jaxx album, she must have thought her time had come to star on a properly huge dance track. Maybe something as popular as 'Oh My Gosh' or even 'You Don't Know Me'.

Sadly for Santi, and us, it's business as usual as she turns out a fairly standard, reggae influenced track which is destined to stay rooted to the album and never make a single release. 'Saga' could have quite easily come from her debut album and it doesn't really highlight the potential of either Santigold or the Jaxx.

And now it's leaked. What with the Sam Sparro collaboration also now floating around, it's like finding all your Christmas presents in the bottom of your parent's wardrobe in November.

Basement Jaxx feat. Santigold 'Saga'

Modjo Jackson

We didn't write anything about the death of Michael Jackson. Partly because there was media saturation to the point that it didn't really feel like anything had actually happened, partly because there's nothing we could say that hadn't already been said, partly because we forgot. But today we came across a, rather lovely, version of 'Billie Jean' by Yann Destal.

You will likely know of Yann from his Modjo days, but check out his vocals on the tracks on his page. Bloody lovely. The 'Street Spirit' cover is particularly haunting, in the sort of way you think someone's voice isn't quite going to hold out and then it does and then you get a little shiver. We would like to challenge Yann to play this on Singstar as both Robot and Pigeon are particularly honed when it comes to the vocal stylings of Thom Yorke.

And if we haven't gushed enough already, then brace yourselves because we're about to burst all over another of Mr. Destal's projects. Priors. There are only two songs up at the moment, but they're fucking ace. 'What You Need' is a kind of upbeat summer dance, but with a stunning melody (highlighted by the acoustic version). The real triumph, however, is 'Into The Fight', which takes the 80s action movie soundtrack, and drags it kicking and screaming into a 7 minute opus (complete with strings) way beyond anything La Roux sicked up recently.

Just one thing. Someone needs to let Raw Man know that if Priors promote themselves in the UK he needs a slight image change or everyone is just going to think he is Justin Lee Collins. And Yann is certainly no Alan Carr now is he?

Other than that, heart Priors.

Here is the (potentially fake) Daft Punk Tron theme tune

Daft Punk doing the soundtrack to the new Tron movie/sequel is big news. No wait, Daft Punk doing new music of any sort is big news - and here is the first taste of what may, or may not, be their theme tune to the movie.



Anyone hoping for another 'One More Time' will be disappointing, but that would have sounded a bit ridiculous as a theme tune. This is dark, heavy and suitably cinematic instead of being any sort of pop-hit. Maybe there'll be something more pop to be played over the credits we can all dance out of the cinema to.

The excitement among Daft Punk fans is clear from the comments on the YouTube video. Lets have a look at what they have to say:

Kaine180: 'I love daft punk so much, ima gna get high to this 2moro :)'

Rendaylor: 'I pulled up this track and the first thing my gf said was "It sounds like porn!" lol! XD'

Dotsy007: 'No words to describe the eargasms im gettin from this tune :)'

Lasrbeast: 'This is the exact same track they played at the Tron Comic Con booth... this is real.'

However, one naysayer has to spoil all the fun for everyone with the following remark:

PCchonger: 'Sorry to break it to you, but this isn't the real song. It's just a cover from an from an anonymous artist. This video needs to be renamed.'

It only takes one rotten apple to upset the cart... (or however the saying goes).

Sam Sparro has persuaded us to go back to the Basement...

Despite a few decent remixes, Basement Jaxx' last single 'Raindrops' was lacking in some of the trademark Jaxx magic, it was too disjointed and favoured quirkiness over a tune - an essential in any decent pop record.

Their new single, 'Feeling's Gone' on the other hand, is a much more straightforward affair, which retains the carnival atmosphere of Basement Jaxx' live shows, at the same time throwing in some old school dance sensibilities (quiet bits softened by violins, loud bits powered by enormous beats) and a big gay cherry on the top in the form of guest vocalist Sam Sparro.

Sparro's vocals leap from the hushed tones heard on 'Black & Gold' to some seriously OTT diva-esque shrieks. It's probably the second best song Sam Sparro has ever recorded and should give him a decent reminder of what a Top 40 hit feels like - which should stand him in good stead as he records his second album (more than one hit this time around please Mr Sparro).

As for 'Feeling's Gone' and its place in the Basement Jaxx journey, it makes another widely varied addition to their future 'best of'. It's not the second best song Basement Jaxx has ever recorded, but it is very good. Big remix potential too.

Now listen please.

Basement Jaxx feat. Sam Sparro 'Feeling's Gone'

This is mildy diverting

Pixie Lott isn't our favourite new artist of the year, but we can think of worse ways to spend three and half minutes of our time.



Although she seems to be dressing a little bit like a tiny Lady GaGa. That sort of behaviour needs to be reigned in.

New music from Pnau coming soon?

Remember MySpace? Everything these days is 'twitter me this' or 'Bebo me that' but MySpace is where it all started and where you can find RobotPigeon idling away the days.

But here's something from MySpace which caught our eye. Eyes. Whatever.


Pnau are recording music in London. What could this mean?

a. They are recording a follow up to their never-released-in-the-UK-album and rubbing it in by recording music in the country they've so far failed to release so much as a bean.
b. They are re-recording said unreleased-in-the-UK album for a British release, and plan to ride on the back of the Empire of the Sun success to release still-amazing singles such as 'Dancing On The Water', 'Baby' or 'Embrace' upon the British public?
c. That Empire of the Sun was indeed a one-off and both Nick Littlemore and Nick Steele have gone back to the day jobs and that Pnau and The Sleepy Jackson are still the priority for either chap.
d. That Nick Littlemore and Peter Mayes (for they are Pnau) are using the pretence of recording new music to sexualise and impregnate British women. 'Looking for love' indeed...
e. None of the above. Or all of the above. Or a combination of the above. Or a combination of the above and some eventualities we haven't considered in this hardly-exhaustive list of future possibilities.

Whatever the case, new music from Pnau is very exciting indeed. We'd say 'stay tuned for more information' but chances are, some other blog will beat us to it. Speedy fuckers.

Remind yourself what's so special about Pnau at their MySpace. Old songs, all amazing.

PS. We freely admit our MySpace page is a complete and utter shambles...

We like Visitor a lot - at least as much as the other people who have already written about them

'Los Feeling' by Visitor has already been covered on the likes of Popjustice and Discodust, but we'd just like to throw our hat in the ring with those brilliant people and nod our heads in a agreement with what they have had to say about the track.

They have said that A. 'Los Feeling' is amazing and B. it is only a matter of time before a major label comes sniffing around it.

'Los Feeling' sounds like a lost A-Ha track, and not a recent one, an 80s one. It deserves a video shot on the top of a mountain. It's kinda epic and full of amazing synth-y loveliness that makes the whole world seem a bit brilliant.

Visitor 'Los Feeling' (Rough Mix)

Visitor Myspace link.

Digital Foxglove - neither poisonous nor to be worn by animals

Important rules about foxgloves:

1. They are poisonous. Don't put your fingers in them.
2. Foxes don't wear them - or any other flowers - as gloves you fucking idiot.
3. The only type we care about as responsible city dwelling adults are the digital kind.

But Digital Foxgloves aren't a common phenomenon, they are a man, and in this case is the singular, Digital Foxglove, which makes sense really.

Digital Foxglove is a German dance producer who counts the likes of Grum and Russ Chimes in his top friends on MySpace. This should probably tell you that he doesn't make the sort of unlistenable German dance music that so many men from that part of the world do.

Digital Foxgloves sounds like warm, happy warehouse electro-house-pop, the type which soundtracks hundreds of sweaty people dancing, wide-eyed and hugging, on a dancefloor at 4am, not heading off for a pint of water or a quick wee before the next DJ comes on. It's heavy enough to appeal to the hardcore but uplifting enough for the casual raver.

Have a private rave with Digital Foxglove here. That is a link to his MySpace, not some sort of weird invite - FYI.

Put a string on it

Even though it's pretty much done and dusted for 'Confusion Girl' chartwise, the rather brilliant Russ Chimes remix of Frankmusik's most recent pop-flop has poked it's head up on various parts of the internet, and it's quite brilliant indeed.

We heard it first on the all-too-amazing Discodust blog, who are giving it away to download, but for those of you who don't want to go anywhere, have a listen to what Vince Frank himself describes as 'the best remix I have ever had done by anyone'.

It certainly is jolly good, and full of some really good violins.

Frankmusik 'Confusion Girl' (Russ Chimes remix)