Slaughterbrains vs Halloween: Exclusive 'Blood On The Streets'

When Slaughterbrains said he'd help us out for Halloween we didn't expect him to just hand over one of the dirtiest, filthiest, grimiest, scariest, amazingiest dance tunes we've ever heard.

Download: Slaughterbrains' 'Blood On The Streets'

Oh sure, it starts off all coy and innocent with a lady screaming and some heavy breathing. But within a mere sixty seconds Slaughterbains is dragging you through the filthiest, blood soaked dancefloor you have ever experience. This makes Michael Jackson's 'Blood On The Dancefloor' look like a papercut. This is a full on machete wielding attack on the senses.

It pretty much sums up why we fell in love with Slaughterbrains in the first place, and why he's one to keep a gouged eye on for the future.

Cheryl, 3 Words : What The Eff?

The Cheryl Cole 3 Words campaign seems to be spiraling out of control turning into something rather interesting. Not content with having the biggest selling single of the year with 'Fight For This Love', the second single '3 Words' is now also racing up the charts thanks to download sales. Which means, in theory, Cheryl could have the number 1 and number 2 single (although not in the official Robot Pigeon chart) without even 'releasing' the second single.

Fascination are playing a very clever game on this one (although from what we've heard they were probably caught off guard). There's now an official un-official video but not a video for the single but not yet a single second single. Here.

This all makes things very confusing for a music industry who claim "downloads are killing the industry". What happens when the notion of a release date (read: 'control') goes out the window, and music fans can have access to the music they want when and as they please? Here we have people actively buying music. And whilst they're not buying it when the label want, they are buying what the label want (ie '3 Words' was announced as the second single, but it's not hit the official release date yet).

So what does this mean? Does it make the single format redundant? Does it make the album redundant? The label? The A&R? The release date? The promo? The popstar? Well, all it actually means is that somebody somewhere is still willing to hand over cash for sounds. And that can only be a good thing.

So now all we have to work out is what it is that makes people want to buy music from a beautiful woman who is part of one of the best girl bands of all time, part one of the highest rated tv shows of all time, has a celebrity husband, gets miles of column inches, has her face on giant billboards and is generally renowned for being very down to earth and likable. You may not like her music, but that, ladies and gentlemen, is one way of making a 21st century pop star.

Chew Lips are doing something quite interesting next week if you live in London

It's amazing the lengths popstars will go to to get themselves noticed these days. But while some will share their half thought out ideas on file sharing and their fellow chart contemporaries it's nice when a new band like Chew Lips try something a little more inventive to get themselves noticed.

Basically, every month this brilliant new band are putting together a 'residency' at various venues where they curate (decorate), DJ (play songs) and perform (sing songs). Best of all, there is a free CD single for everyone who makes the effort to turn up. Next week (Tuesday November 3rd) this is all happening at The Fly Bar on New Oxford Street where we recently got very drunk with Sound of Arrows and Bright Light Bright Light and had not planned to return until we'd recovered from that night's shameful antics. However, all this sounds very interesting. But most importantly, Chew Lips are a really brilliant band we like very much.

This is what they sound and look like.



Very good, non? We'll see you in the queue for the free CD.

Last night we went to see Ke$ha perform live and she was amazing FULL STOP THE END

We didn't mind that Ke$ha was late on stage at her London showcase last night, but what we did mind was having to listen to *shudder* 'You Sexy Thing' and 'Kung Fu Fighting' while we stood waiting.

We didn't mind waiting for Ke$ha not only because it gave us time to explore the thorough ins and outs of the free bar but because she was nothing short of phenomenal when she finally got around to singing her songs. However, this didn't happen until after the managing director of Columbia Records 'himself' had introduced her, which either shows the enormous faith they have in Ke$ha or was intended to convey the impression that they have enormous faith in Ke$ha. Considering the sales of 'TiK ToK' in the rest of the world we think it will be the former. He made references to 'a young Madonna' and this actually proved to be closer to the truth than clumsy press release quoting like this would have you believe.

Ke$ha was, incredible, even if saying that she 'sung' her songs may be a bit of an exagerration. There was a lot of backing track. However, her show was all about the energy, the noise and the mother-fucking glitter canon.

Ke$ha sung five songs, 'Backstabber', 'Party At A Rich Dude's House', 'Dinosaur' 'BlahBlahBlah' and 'TiK Tok'. We are guessing the names of 'Party At A Rich Dude's House' and 'BlahBlahBlah' by calling them whatever line she repeated most. These two, and 'Dinosaur' were new to us, however, like everything else we've heard from Ke$ha they were all amazing but unlike everything else we've heard from Ke$ha, they were really noisy.

'Party At A Rich Dude's House' and 'Blahblahblah' could have been written by Avril Lavigne and 'Dinosaur' could have been recorded by Fannypack. So, in Fannypack, Avril Lavigne and the lazily-obvious Lady GaGa comparisons, there's literally the good, the bad and the ugly of female pop music covered.

We attempted to video some of the new songs but to be honest, Robot's phone is so shit that it sounded more like the army going past. We did manage to get a barely-audible video of 'TiK ToK' which is of such shockingly low quality and so blocky that is looks more like a news interview with a child-abuse victim than it does a performance clip of The Most Exciting New Popstar of 2010.



That truly is the single worst video on YouTube isn't it? All those people waving their iPhones around in front of us only make things worse :(

A child friendly 'The Knife': Muchuu

Muchuu are girl/boy duo Milky and George. That sounds like a kids' cartoon about a cow and a farmer. In the case of Muchuu it would be a a cow and a farmer making lovely lo-fi downtempo electro pop.

They've got three tracks up at the moment.

1. 'Somebody Tell Me': opens with strings reminiscent of Prokofiev's Peter & The Wolf, before a Dragonette style vocal drops in and then the beats get going and you suddenly think you are in a forest having a little dance with some pixies. Imagine a less scary The Knife and you're on the right lines.

2. 'Adventure We Go': is all sorts of vocoder crazy, but not in a Cher "do you burllieveeeeee in life after looouuuvvvreeeeee" style. It also has a beat, but not in a Cher "strong enough to live without you, strong enough, and I quit crying long enough" style. It also has a flute on it, but not in *insert Cher song featuring a flute* style. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Cher.

3. 'Coral & Shell': is along the lines of I Monsters' 'Daydream In Blue' mixed with the vocal styling of Ellie Goulding (you know when she does that funny thing and screws her face up and then sounds a bit like she has some phlegm in her throat but she swallows it just in time and nice noise comes out).

Pigeon is buzzing up to the eyeballs on Lemsip and cough medicine today (on top of a killer hangover) so you may have to excuse these appalling descriptions of the music and just have a little listen yourself. Here is Somebody Tell Me, complete with a lovely video featuring butterfly chasing:



There's more music on Muchuu's Myspace. We think you will like them.

Halloween exclusive: Slaughterbrains Mixtape

Ok, you might wet yourselves for this one. We have already used an entire roll of Bounty and there are still some more dribbles to mop up. It's the Halloween mixtape from Slaughterbrains:

Listen/Download: Slaughterbrains' Halloween Mixtape

There's never been a more perfect combination (apart from Robot & Pigeon): Slaughterbrains does the horror/dance music genre in his own inimitable style, Halloween is all about horror, we are all about dance, we are all about Halloween and dance and Slaughterbrains and horror and music. It's like God created the universe on the sixth day and then set the world into motion on the seventh purely so that this precise moment could exist.

If you are having a Halloween party/gathering/dinner/bar mitzvah then you need to download this right this mother effing second. And if you're not you should download it anyway, although the Halloween date may not be quite so pressing.

Diamond Cut does Cassette Kids again: Download 'Lying Around' Diamond Cut Remix

As we might have mentioned previously Diamond Cut is the man/God helping Visitor to turn their brilliant songs into audible gold. He's also something of a remixer. Following Diamond Cut's reswizzle of Cassette Kids' 'Freaky Sweetie' he's now turned his hand to another of their tracks 'Lying Around'.

You can put your ears against it right here: Download Cassette Kids 'Lying Around' (Diamond Cut Remix)

And here's the original so you can compare and contrast:



So we're in upbeat Ladyhawke territory, with a hint of The Sounds for good measure. Katrina does a great vocal on this one, and Diamond Cut retains the whole thing, but in an interesting twist for a dance remix, brings the tempo down slightly.

What's nice about Diamond Cut is that he keeps the body of a track, whilst building something entirely new around it. So you get a whole new dance track built out of the parts of an equally great indie pop track. Kind of like smashing up a Lego hospital and rebuilding it into a castle. Complete with Lego cannons. Imagine what he's going to do when he gets some Pirate Lego...

Slaughterbrains' Halloween Soundtrack Special

Halloween is on Saturday. You know, the one day of the year when it's ok for children to go begging for sweets from paedophiles and for teenagers to throw eggs at old people's houses. To celebrate we thought we'd let our favourite horror dance music maker Slaughterbrains possess Robot Pigeon for this week.

Now we're not a film blog, so we had to think of a way round doing Top 5 Horror Films. After a long drinking session planning meeting we came up with: Slaughterbrains' Top 5 Horror Film Soundtracks. Weirdly, he didn't go for 'My Heart Will Go On'...

1. The Lost Boys (Various)
"They're only noodles Michael". You know this one, the one with the man from 24 and those two boys from rehab. The soundtrack has Echo & The Bunneymen and Roger Daltry on it, but if we're honest this is surely the highlight:



2. Nightmare On Elm Street (Charles Bernstein)
Everyone remembers the creepy rhyme from the film?



People in our school used to chant this in the playground, even though we were only seven years old at the time and this film definitely had an 18 certificate. Anyway, it wasn't just that rhyme that was creepy as hell. The entire soundtrack puts us on edge. We wouldn't want to listen to this on our own in the flat in the dark:



It's like Pan Pipe Moods meets Humpty Dumpty meets industrial metal.

3. Suspiria (Goblin)
We're sure our sister had a jewellery box with a plastic ballerina in it which span to this music. Well, it did until the dog chewed its head off. Probably spurred on by the soul of the devil which is clearly residing in this melody:



What's more scary is Cage sampling this in his track 'Weather People'. Why is he writing songs about Michael Fish? *superfluous 1980s reference*



4. The Monster Squad
Summed up beautifully by Slaughterbrains himself: "Shittiest theme ever. But I love it."



5. Near Dark (Tangerine Dream)
Everyone loves German electro, right? *tumbleweed* So getting Tangerine Dream to do the soundtrack to Near Dark was a great idea, right? Actually, yes. Tangerine Dream did a tonne of film soundtracks including Legend and Risky Business. It's a bit boring out of context, but in the movie the soundtrack helps to ensure Near Dark is probably director Kathryn Bigelow's finest film *legion of Point Break fans take a collective gasp*



Thanks Slaughterbrains. More horror themed/loosely music related posts tomorrow...

New music Monday: Audio Lynch 'Easy Sun'

Things we like include Dragonette and mash-up mixes. We are also quite partial to the work of the Freemasons, so a Dragonette/Freemasons (via Disco Freaks) mash-up by Audio Lynch was always going to appeal. An easy sell.

However, there is more to this than the sum of it's parts. What follows is totally wonderful.


However, we have found a major flaw with Easy Sun's mix - the vocals of Dragonette's 'Easy' and the Freemasons production of Disco Freaks 'Take Me To The Sun' works together so well, there's no real 'mash', only the 'up' as together these make for a truly wonderful listening experience. This could be a single in it's own rights. We may be slap bang in the middle of a dreary October, but if there is any more sunshine to be found in 2009, it might just be hiding on this track.

We are totally in love with this.

Audio Lynch 'Easy Sun'

Robot Pigeon Chart : 25th October '09

This week's chart sees the biggest selling single of the year some stuff we love topping the list.

1. Visitor 'Love'
We're going to start getting accused of favouritism towards Visitor. That's fine though because, if they weren't already pretty high on our list of people we love, this week they gave us a new track to post. 'Love' shows no sign that Visitor are slowing in churning out hit after hit after hit after *explodes with nepotism*

2. Bit Funk 'Love Scientific'
The only thing scientific about love is the how to make a baby part. And the only scientific thing about making a brilliant song is that it sounds amazing. We don't know how many babies Bit Funk has made, but he's certainly adept at the brilliant song making.

3. Leona Lewis 'Happy'
X Factor, Simon Cowell, manufactured, boo etc etc. Well we don't care what the music snobs think - Leona Lewis is bloody talented, and so are her songwriting team. And they're one of the few people left actually selling any records. Yes, Happy is a ballad. Yes, Happy is a pop song. Sometimes even the most hardened dance fan wants to see their mum and/or listen to a pop ballad. Go with this.

4. Cheryl Cole 'Fight For This Love' (Moto Blanco remix)
If you look in the dictionary under 'a grower' this song starts playing. We were mortifed when we first heard it, and thought it was utter rubbish. Now it's on constant repeat in Robot Pigeon towers. If they do the right campaign for this it might do ok in the real charts as well. Still all about the Moto Blanco remix though.

5. Kirstenana 'Happy'
Oh look, three songs this week with 'love' in the title, and two songs with 'happy'. Anyone would think some new words need to be invented. It doesn't matter though because all these songs sound very different in their own ways. And are all brilliant. We found Kirstenana earlier this week and haven't stopped listening since.

Let's not mess around here, the new Aqua song and video 'My Mamma Said' is totally brilliant

After Aqua's 'Back To The 80s' single, we wouldn't have expected anything more than mediocre to come from now-slightly-less-ridiculous-than-they-once-were Danish chart toppers.

But GOSH, their 'My Mamma Said' single is very, very good indeed. It is essentially Aqua doing a taTu song and since taTu aren't really making taTu songs any more, then we would like to propose more bands start throwing spooky, epic electro-power ballads into their repetoire.

What maybe stands out most about 'My Mamma Said' is that not even Rene can ruin this one (as has been his role in Aqua since year dot). His contributions are, incredibly restrained. Lene is, as ever, amazing and still one of the world's lost pop icons.

This is brilliant.



We're a long way from 'Barbie Girl' and 'Dr Jones' here. It's just odd that with a band like Aqua, they could reinvent the wheel (musically speaking) and no one would give them the benefit of the doubt. Or so it seems.

We are surprised as anyone to be writing about an Alesha Dixon song

File this one under: People we wouldn't have imagined covering on RobotPigeon.

What do we know about Alesha Dixon? Well, she used to be the noisy one in Mis-Teeq, won that boring ballroom dancing show that clashes with X Factor and had some very public marriage unpleasantry in the not too distant past.

She's not very noisy any more though, because after 'The Alesha Show' album started shifting copies once she released her 'Breathe Slow' single, she's been dressing in lots of long, serious winter coats and beeen shunted down a sloppy-ballad path, which is not something we'd generally approve of, but is actually all sounding rather lovely. Now, aside from the quite-excellent 'To Love Again' single, her Xenomania collaboration, 'The Light' has popped it's shiny electro head up on the internet as well.

It's not a ballad in the strictest sense, it's a slick, 90's electro-pop head-nodder and the sort of thing only artists with major-label funding can churn out in an attempt to keep up with the trends set by the likes of fresher, younger artists.

But don't let that last bit make you think we don't like 'The Light'. It's understatedly spectacular and the best thing Alesha Dixon has recorded since going solo. All 'The Light' needs is a video set in a spaceship with Alesha looking sad at one of the windows to make this a really enormous hit single.

Alesha Dixon 'The Light'

PS. It will probably be a bit longer when it gets a proper release :)

WE LOVE VISITOR: 'Love' by Visitor - exclusive FREE download

Remember yesterday when we were all "Wow look at us we got a Visitor CD and it's got a new song on it"?

Well, on reflection, we thought that was a bit "We've got Sonic 2 for the Mega Drive, but you're not allowed to have a go" so we asked the Visitor boys very nicely if we could post it on here and they said "Yes you can" (this would have been doubly mean if they'd said "No you can't" wouldn't it).

So here you go. Download away and have a listen to 'Love (Rough Mix)'. 'Rough' is not a new super producer by the way, it is just alerting you to the fact that this is not the finished version. Like when Van Gogh would do a rough sketch of a sunflower and then turn it into a wonderful painting and then cut his ear off. So imagine what this is going to sound like when it's finished. . .

DOWNLOAD: Visitor 'Love' (Rough Mix)

Also, we should give another mention to his majesty Diamond Cut for continued services to Visitor's music and our ears. *Round of applause/pats on the back etc*

PS. If you are one of those people who think the internet is killing music you are not allowed to download this. You have to wait for the CD to come out and then pay money for it. Sorry.

Girl with great voice and songs alert: Kirstenana

Oh Christ on a bike, not another female singer songwriter. We know, we know there are so many of them now you wonder what Emmeline Pankhurst was ever making such a fuss about. But this one is really very, very good. Her name is Kirstenana, which automatically earns her 100 onomatology points in Female Singer Songwriter Top Trumps.

'Happy' is our favourite track. It sounds nothing like the forthcoming Leona single, but not in bad way, just in a way that it's not a ballad. It starts with echoes of The Gossip, before plunging into a Ladyhawke/Florence hybrid, with a hint of Annie, and no trace of La Roux or Little Boots. Which in food analogy terms means you get the full roast minus the sprouts and cabbage.

What makes Kirstenana even more exciting though is that she has more than one good song. That sounds like we're being facetious, but we're not. We're a bit bored of people being signed on the basis of a killer single and then releasing a lackluster album. Kirstenana, though, has got at least half a top 10 album up there on her Myspace already. 'All Outta Love', the newest track on the player, is an uptempo affair, whilst 'Wishing Your Life Away' is, well, hear for yourself:



Also note she is beautiful and sounds amazing even when sitting in her kitchen playing the guitar. The more we listen, the more we're getting over excited.

If the conveyer belt of musical girls continues with more in the mould of Kirstenana, the boys might have to start thinking about burning their bras just to get some attention.

We highly recommend Kirstenana on Myspace

PS We hope we spelt Kirstenana consistently throughout this post - it's a really hard one.

Louis La Roche remixes Michael Jackson and the results of this are exceptionally good

When it comes to Michael Jackson's 'Thriller', it's got to be said that one of the most important parts of the equation is the whole 'Michael Jackson' bit. So it's a strange approach for Louis La Roche to take on his remix of the moderately-well-known song in stripping pretty much all traces of Michael Jackson off the track altogether.

So it's probably a testament to both 'Thriller' and Louis La Roche that even when its just the bare bones of Jackson on the track (poor choice of words, but hey), La Roche's halloween remix is quite brilliant. Vincent Price made the cut however, so well done scary-grandad.

The 'Thriller' remix is full of the typically agressive, thrusting French-house-isms that the La Roche is making a name for himself with, even if our using 'thrusting' and 'agressive' makes him sound a bit rapey.

Most importantly, Louis La Roche is not expecting any money for this release, and is giving it away for a spooky zero pounds and zero pence. In other words, a free download (and lord knows the internet isn't full of them already).

Download: Michael Jackson 'Thriller' (Louis La Roche remix)

Very, very good. We will be listening to this in our kitchen while we get blind drunk on Halloween, end up covered in body-paint that never looks as good in reality as it did in our minds before we go to the Kitsune Halloween party. Thank you Louis La Roche, our warm-up is sorted.

Ellie Goulding, Under The Sheets: now with both sounds and moving pictures (ie a video)

It seems that, in a matter of weeks, Ellie Goulding has gone from barely heard-of bloggers favourite to fully fledged pop property.

This is a good thing obviously, although we're a bit confused over the whole 'Under The Sheets' release strategy. It has been released on 12", has flown around the internet as a free download and it has a proper release date (November 15) as well. 'Under The Sheets' has also this week been nudged onto the bottom end of the the Radio One playlist (good work, Ellie Goulding's people). We are fairly sure everything is going very much to plan.

'Under The Sheets' also now has a very expensive looking video which is essentially a combination of Karen Ramirez' 'Looking For Love' and a performance by the Blue Man Group.

It is vv good.



Little Boots will be sobbing into her tenorion.

Pigeon In The City 2: 'Unicorn Kid'

There was a lot of fuss and nonsense about Unicorn Kid back at the start of the year when he remixed Pet Shop Boys''Did You See Me Coming':



But we're far more interested in hearing his music without that old man singing over the top of it. So we snapped our glowstick and went along to see what Unicorn Kid's been writing of late. And it really is very exciting indeed. Old favourite Biscuits is as good a yardstick as any for what you can expect (well, if it ain't broke etc):



Everything is just so 'right' about Unicorn Kid. He looks the part, clearly enjoys the music he's making and the whole image appears natural and exciting. And he's still under 20. Bastard.

The only downside to this was hearing it in a roomful of old A&R men nodding their heads and tapping their feet, which is not a patch on seeing Unicorn Kid surrounded by a group of teenagers all wearing his silly hat and having the time of their lives. It's this sort of gig which highlights the difference between people who love music and people who love music because it makes them money.

See what the youth of today are up to: Unicorn Kid's Myspace page

Pigeon In The City Part 1: Something from Visitor you can hold in your hands

In The City is nothing to do with that tv show about those old whores having lunch and wearing in their Manolo Blahniks. It is a music conference where a lot of bands play a lot of music in a lot of venues and a lot of people from the music industry run around. A lot. Much of said music was not to our taste (ie 'rubbish'), but there were some things we wanted to tell you about. Here is the first of those things:

Visitor on a compact disc:

At the Visitor gig we got given a CD. A CD is a round, shiny piece of plastic which has songs on it. In olden times people would exchange money for said plastic in a 'record shop' and then put it in a 'cd player' and music would come out. See the fuzzy picture above for a visual representation of said CD.

What's exciting about this particular piece of plastic is that it contains a new song called 'Love'. 'Love' tells us that the Visitor album must be shaping up to be pretty much amazing if this is being given out for free. It establishes that 'Los Feeling' and 'Hurt Someone' were not just a happy accident - as if that were ever in doubt. It also establishes that Visitor have a very distinctive sound. That sound we will henceforth term: marvisitorlous.

And what of the gig? Well, Robot once declared 'these guys are too big for shit venues, they should just be playing stadiums'. Agreed. Hurry up general public and embrace Visitor and let's get this album out. Maybe once they are rich and famous they will take us out for trendy lunches to talk about our shoes.

If you haven't looked at it the last fifty times we told you to: Visitor's myspace is here

Free download: Sia 'Under The Milky Way' (it is very good)

We were clearly very wrong when we wrote about Sia's cover of 'Under The Milky Way' by The Church being only recorded for a car advert and that she was on dangerous pop-star/30-second-jingle-singer ground. But our wishes have been answered in that we asked for a full-length version of the song and lo and behold (cue heavenly choir) - here it is.

The full version of the track is now available as a free download, and apart from an 'axe-solo' just after the 2.15 point, the track is Sia at her typically dreamy, amazing lullaby best.

Did we mention it was free? Here is the link.

Download: Sia 'Under The Milky Way'

Perhaps you'd like to go and buy a car now. Vroom vroom etc.

Old music Tuesday: Snap! 'Welcome To Tomorrow'

On Sunday night, during The X Factor, there was an advert for the Snap! greatest hits. At first we thought 'it must have cost a fortune to pay for this slot'. Secondly we thought 'we never need to hear 'The Power' or 'Rhythm Is A Dancer' ever again. But the most important thought we had was 'OMG, HOW AMAZING IS 'WELCOME TO TOMORROW?"



'Welcome To Tomorrow' was a Top 10 hit in 1994 and its success made pretty much no sense at all. A trance/chillout hybrid, it sounded like nothing else at the time and nothing has ever sounded like it since. It is a tiny pocket of ambient chart success for a band more famous for their 'i'm serious as cancer' lyrics than they are their subtle and more lo-fi music.

Of course, that's not to say you couldn't go raving to it, although we never did - we were too busy doing maths in school for all that.

Follow up 'The First, The Last Eternity' was pretty special too.

Bit Funk: amazing, but possibly needs to stop doing passport sized publicity shots

There is so much terrible music on the internet it's untrue. For every Visitor, Diamond Cut, I Always Wanted A Pony!, Sound of Arrows or Slaughterbrains there's an endless number of bands who are so unspeakably dreadful that it makes us want to pack in this music nonsense and start writing about celebrity gossip.

But when people like Bit Funk turn up, it suddenly makes everything worthwhile. If you're a regular reader of RobotPigeon you've probably got a good idea of the sort of music that makes us tick - warm, uplifting electronic music which doesn't just make you want to dance, but practically grabs your hand and pulls you onto the dance floor. This sort of description sums up Bit Funk perfectly and saves us having to say 'Bit Funk is a bit funky'.

Bit Funk has mastered house music which falls somewhere between the sounds of New York and Paris (which would probably be the middle of the ocean and therefore a 'splosh' sound). Bit Funk makes irresistible music such as 'Geraldine Hunt Is Badass' (we googled her, she is indeed) and the quite heavenly 'Love Scientific' which rivals Swedish producer Mille's 'Crysteena' as our favourite instrumental dance tune of the year.

Bit Funk 'Love Scientific'

He's also remixed Vistor's 'Los Feeling' - but then so has nearly everyone on the planet with the exception of our parents (and we have sneaky suspicion that our mums are teaming up to lay down some beats pretty soon*).

Anyway, Bit Funk comes highly recommended. Here is a link to his MySpace.

*They're really not - although we'd love it if Sue and Fran gave it a try.

Leona Lewis' 'Happy' video will confuse international fans and disappoint UK visitors

Thanks to the new Leona Lewis video, American audiences are going to believe that British people spend our days sunning ourselves on our doorsteps waiting for handsome men to approach us and eventually offer us true happiness and a nice outdoor wedding. British audiences however, will notice that the new Leona Lewis video is set in the Mediterranean somewhere hot in Cuba which has a very different climate to the UK and know that the only time we spend on our doorsteps is when we can't find our keys and are trying to root them out of a back pocket without having to put all of our shopping down on the floor and let it roll out of the carrier bags and out onto the path.

Ahem.



In other observations on Leona Lewis' 'Happy' video; this is her best video ever/yet. Hopefully her days of awkward dance routines are over (see 'Forgive Me') and the days of big budget, slightly acted pop videos are all ahead. She is a much better actress than she is dancer - but had better not get any ideas about going into movies anytime soon, since we are not done with her as a popstar yet. There is also a big twist at the end, although while we're on a movie theme, we're not exactly talking David Lynch or Alfred Hitchcock here.

Just think, in three years time, John & Edward could be doing something very similar :)

New music Monday: Microfilm feat. Del Marquis 'I'll Sing Like Billy MacKenzie'

You may be aware that we interviewed the charming Del Marquis not so long ago and he told us a lot of interesting things about gayness and 'giving good ass'. However, the point of the interview was not sex but to talk about his solo music.

But former Scissor Sisters guitarist Del Marquis just can't seem to keep away from bands, having teamed up with Oregon based electro-duo, Microfilm on their new EP, 'Blips Don't Lie'.

Download: Microfilm feat. Del Marquis 'I'll Sing Like Billy MacKenzie'

The track is a dark, slow-burning club track which, despite an inconspicuous opening slowly builds into a huge, multi-tiered slice of electro heaven featuring Del's vocal and guitar talents. It's like a giant electronic wedding cake with flashing LEDs where the fondant roses should be. Actually, speaking of weddings there are also some rather magnificent church bells on the track which rounds this off nicely.

More on Microfilm at their website.

Robot Pigeon Chart: 18 October '09

So while Pigeon has swanned off to In The City in a car with Sound of Arrows and Bright Light Bright Light, it's left to Robot to hold things down round here ("nothing new there then" - the world at large). Here's what we've both been listening to in the past seven days (John & Edward not withstanding).

1. I Always Wanted A Pony! 'The Weekend'
A completely wonderful piece of Swedish pop-electronica. Simple and repetitive but thoroughly amazing, we can't wait to hear more from this talented duo.



2. Yes Giantess 'The Ruins'
Despite, at first glance, the title of this song looking a lot like 'The Runs', this Starsmith-produced masterpiece cements both him and the band as two of 2010's biggest pop hopes.



3. Cheryl Cole 'Fight For This Love' (Moto Blanco remix)
All this fuss over her X Factor appearance has overshadowed the fact that it is all in aid of promoting her really-rather-brilliant debut single. And this mix makes it all the more exciting.


4. Erik Hassle 'Hurtful'
Hopefully on it's way to becoming a really huge hit (*crosses robot fingers*) and since we wrote about 'Hurtful' at the very start of 2009, we've hardly stopped listening to this brilliant pop ballad.



5. Cassette Kids 'Freaky Sweetie' (Diamond Cut remix)
We've been sat on this MP3 for weeks until Diamond Cut gave us the go-ahead to write about it. And he did. So we wrote. And 'Freaky Sweetie' is amazing in a perfect-nineties-house-tune way.

Life can only go downhill after John & Edward's 'Oops!... I Did It Again' performance on X Factor

This is for the benefit of RobotPigeon readers who live in Europe, America, Asia and anywhere else on the planet who were not at home in the UK watching X Factor last night.

Last night, reality TV reached an epiphany. A moment of such wonder that nothing will ever be the same again. The sun may continue to rise and fall but from hereon in, we will continue to live out our lives in the tragic knowledge that we will never experience anything of greater consequence, entertainment and sheer audacity as John & Edward's performance of 'Oops!... I Did It Again' on last night's X Factor. The look of joy on Cheryl Cole's face in the picture above was mirrored by every man, woman and child in Great Britain who didn't have plans for their Saturday night.

Here is the best YouTube video of all time.


Something about that video suggest to us that there may be more great clips at itv.com/factor but we're not sure where we are getting that idea from.

We have loved John & Edward since they ruined another lady's performance at Boot Camp and judging by the explosion of John & Edward love on Facebook and Twitter in the minutes following their performance last night, the rest of the UK seems to agree.

They've not got a hope in hell's chance of winning though, not while Olly Murs is thrusting his shiny crotch at the audience and doing his Robbie Williams-lite thing.

Diamond Cut does his 'thing' to the new Cassette Kids single (to typical amazing effect)

The Diamond Cut remix of the Cassette Kids' 'Freaky Sweetie' can be easily mapped out as follows in the moments of amazingness outlined below:

1.50: After wondering 'is this going anywhere?' for the best part of two minutes, discovering parts of a cheery pop song in the midst of a rather ominous build is like finding ten quid in an old pair of jeans on their way to the washing machine.

2.21: An enormous nineties-house piano is dropped on the track. Things, obviously are going well.

3.50: Everything drops out and may as well be signposted saying 'THERE IS A HUGE FUCKING CHORUS JUST AROUND THE CORNER FOLKS'

4:15: A huge fucking chorus. Cue more giant piano bits and then it's back to the dark fade we started with as if it was all just some sort of wonderful house dream.

Bish bash bosh. Amazing. The end.

Cassette Kids 'Freaky Sweetie' (Diamond Cut remix)

Now with added strings: Cheryl Cole 'Fight For This Love' (Moto Blanco Remix)

Fight For This Love has slowly grown on us over the weeks. It's certainly not amazing, but then if everything was amazing 'amazing' would merely become 'average'.

We stumbled across this earlier though, and it kind of knocks the track from 'average' to 'really v.good' on the 'how do we feel about this song' scale. It's the Moto Blanco remix.



It's got a enough of a beat to make it interesting, but not so much that it stands out as a dancefloor remix. So, really, they should have gone with this as the radio edit if you ask us.

Absolutely love the strings. It would be funny if Cheryl sat on a stool and belted this out in front of an orchestra on Saturday night. She could stand for the key change. If she's singing in a key that is...

A new song by Sia! And it's a cover version... And it has only been recorded to sell some cars :(

Most people are in general agreement that Sia is a pretty good singer. Or at least, those few people who have taken the time to listen to Sia are in agreement. Not many people have, despite her being one of the finest singers working today and having released two and a half brilliant albums (the first was a bit patchy).

Which brings us to this. A car advert.



What a lovely song Sia is singing. It is a cover of 'Under The Milky Way' by The Church. The car is apparently a Lincoln MKT. *robot shrugs shoulders and looks confused*

But while it's nice to hear Sia's voice get out and about for a few seconds (31 to be precise) this sort of thing is a big worry for the music industry, as talented, underachieving artists take commissions from advertising companies to record music specifically to sell cars/beer/cat-food/female sanitary aids etc. We don't even know if there is a full version of Sia's cover of 'Under The Milky Way' but we sincerely hope so, otherwise one of our favourite singers in the world has become no better than that lady who sung 'Whoah Bodyfor-horm, Bodyformed for Yoooooooooouuuuuuu'.

A-ha: 1984 - 2009

Without A-ha, hardly any of the bands we write about on RobotPigeon would exist. Well, they probably would, but most likely sounding utterly rotten. A-ha were one of the first bands to make soaring boy-pop and it is fortunate that their career will be book-ended with the truly incredible 'Take On Me' and 'Foot Of The Mountain' - because they really did lose it for a few years in the middle. They announced that they were calling time on their career today.

Everyone remembers 'Take On Me' so here's the other one. The swansong. Quack (or honk, whatever the noise that swans make is).



A-ha, we salute you. Here's an altogether more 'BBC' take on the story.

Here is a thing about Visitor playing live which could have been said in about 25 words or less

What are your plans for next Thursday? Well whatever they might be, cancel them and get yourself to Proud Galleries in Camden. Why? Well because Visitor are playing and as you may already be aware, Visitor are one of the best new bands in the country.

This gig is exciting for two reasons. Mostly because it will be the biggest venue we have seen Visitor play in, although still not big enough if you ask us. Their amazing pop songs are big enough to fill, well, if not Wembley Stadium then at least Hammersmith Apollo, so we look forward to seeing what they sound like in this slightly-below-mid-sized-venue.

The other reason that his gig is exciting is because Visitor have recently revealed a new 'promotional shot' of Lucas from the band (see above), but like stealthy pop ninjas, have kept any new pics of singer Kyle under lock and key. We are looking forward to seeing what sort of make-over job has been done on him, perhaps his whole head will have been replaced with a glitter ball. WE JUST DON'T KNOW! And that is why it is exciting.

Click here for more information on the best gig you will go to next week.

(Please excuse this slight piece of nonsense. It has been quite a long day. We basically wanted to say that Visitor were playing a gig and it is something we recommend people go to).

Listen to Visitor at MySpace.

Dragonette interview: 'People behave differently around a sexually confident woman'

In 2007 the British pop industry was presented with a jaw-droppingly brilliant album full of hit singles, clever lyrics, irresistable hooks and slick, radio-friendly production called 'Galore'. The British public took one listen to Dragonette's debut, and then inexplicably hurried off to buy another copy of Mika's album instead.

But now the Canadian four-piece are back with new album 'Fixin To Thrill' and are ready for a second bite at the pop cherry with an album full of hit singles, clever - oh hang on, PLEASE SEE ABOVE. Have Dragonette braced themselves for another go at us unpredictable Brits? We spoke to singer Martina Sorbara and asked her some questions to this effect.

Hello Martina. Did it seem an awful lot of hassle to have moved from Canada to London to record and promote 'Galore' only for it to get huge back in Canada and end up a bit of a shambles, sales-wise, in the UK?
No way. Moving to London was the beginning of our great adventure. Who knows what would (or wouldn't) have happened if we hadn't left home for London?

Why do you think the album failed when it was released in the UK?
I think our UK label had a very different idea of who/what Dragonette was to what we envisioned. Perhaps our opposing visions tugged against each other and that probably confused people - I don't know. But all that is so far out of our minds now, we're all really happy with the new album, with BOTH albums, and just generally appreciating where we are and the clearer picture we have of things.

Was it a conscious decision to ditch the lyrics on infidelity and being something of a sexual predator?
No. Just like with Galore, I wrote the lyrics for this album based on what I was feeling and thinking about at the time. In both cases, the stories that came out are only based on real life, but embellished for the sake of a better story.

Are people scared of a sexually confident woman?
Not scared, I'd say. I think people behave differently around a sexually confident woman.

So what else is has changed for Dragonette, in your time away from the UK?
We have a new guitar player, Chris Huggett - which I'd say was the most obvious thing. Less obvious, I think, is the difference in how we feel about our band. We're not having to live up to any hype about us any more, which has made us much more relaxed now.

In what ways is the 'Fixin' To Thrill' album different than 'Galore'?
It's tougher sonically but softer emotionally.

How many potential hit singles do you think you have on the new record?
Twelve. Hahaha!

Are you hesitant about releasing 'Fixin To Thrill' in Britain?
No. We're ready.

Do you worry about finding a tarantula in your bananas?
It's just one if my irrational fears. how did you know?!

There's a Cherry character referenced in 'Pick Up The Phone', and in the 'Take It Like A Man' video. Is she a Martina alter ego?
Cherry, in 'Pick Up The Phone' is me I guess, but a more innocent me. I had never consciously tied that into the Take It Like A Man character but I like where you're going with this and I'm inclined to agree.

What's your favourite tinned food?
Tuna. Red kidney beans. Chick peas. They're even better together.

You've been tossing out free downloads like there's no tomorrow in the lead up to the album's release. Are we to assume that you are not of the opinion that the internet and file-sharing is killing the music industry?
It's definitely killing some parts of the music industry, but it's feeding others. I have a feeling we're in between two business models of music, where one is definitely on its last legs, and the other has yet to really present itself.

Is the Canadian music industry struggling as badly as it is in the UK?
Yes. But it was never as strong so it has less of a distance to fall.

We heard 'I Get Around' feature prominently on the soundtrack to Sorority Row. What were your thoughts on the film?
I haven't seen it. The title is, of course, intriguing. My feeling in general about our tracks in films, is that I still feel flattered that someone thought of us for their film. It's different for adverts obviously - I can imagine a scenario where there is no amount flattery that would convince me to associate our music with a certain product.

What happens to Dragonette if the new album goes belly-up?
We keep on going. We write music that makes us happy and right now, enough people care about what we're doing that we feel excited to play the songs and feel pumped about what the next batch might sound like. It's also the only thing any of us really knows what to do!

So long as it doesn't sound anything like the current Sugababes or Robbie Williams stuff, we'll be pumped too. Thank you very much, Martina from Dragonette.

'Fixin To Thrill' is released in the UK on 23 October 2009. Click here to buy from Play.com. Really, this time, you NEED to buy it.

Dragonette at MySpace

You will be hearing a lot of this record in the first quarter of 2010

Island Records will be releasing the amazing 'The Radio' by Get Far and H-Boogie in the UK at the start of next year.

*Pops champagne cork*

This is the song in question. A Number One if you ask us (cut to March 2010 and a 'new entry' at Number 96).



The end.

Our plans tonight involve Natalie Portman's Shaved Head (the band, not a lady's bald cranium)

What are you doing tonight? Well, here's what we're doing and we'll tell you this for nothing, you could do a lot worse than joining us. We're off to see Natalie Portman's Shaved Head play live in a pub in North London.

Now, we'll freely admit that this band has officially the worst name in the history of modern music, but when you've had over a million hits on your MySpace page, it's almost certainly too late to go back and change it. However, if you have had over a million hits on your MySpace page, it's a Sign Of The Times that you are playing gigs in tiny pubs such as The Flowerpot in Kentish town.

Oh, and if you need some sort of idea of what Natalie Portman's Shaved Head sounds like we'd describe it as thus: uplifting, head-nodding pop party tunes with one foot in modern electronica and the other in a more traditional five-piece bands set up (ie, sometimes you can hear a guitar). Basically, if you like Operator Please and the first Hadouken! album, this lot are definitely up your street.

Anyway, NPSH are onstage at 9pm. We'll be there - although not necessarily at the front, possibly at the back quite drunk or outside smoking a cigarette and not realising we're missing the band :(

Natalie Portman's Shaved Head at MySpace.

More about popular live music venue, The Flowerpot.

PS. Does that animated GIF make people feel sick or does it make us look really skilled at HTMLing pictures onto our blog?

Pnau then, what new music shall I consider buying this week?

Are you planning on buying the Alexandra Burke or Robbie Williams singles this week? Well here's an idea, why not buy NEITHER. Why not instead buy one of the best (and repeatedly delayed) electro-pop albums of the past few years which has finally been allowed to put in an appearance on iTunes. We are tallking about 'Pnau' by Pnau (if the image above hadn't already made things bleeding obvious enough).

The album is basically amazing from start to finish with some aggressive, masculine electro ('Shock To My System', 'No More Violence'), some brilliant lady-pop ('Embrace' featuring Ladyhawke), a huge dance hit not unlike Justice's 'D.A.N.C.E' ('Baby'), two beautiful boy-pop songs ('Come Together' and 'Dancing On The Water') and also a rather obvious first single featuring blokey out of Empire of the Sun ('With You Forever').

But if you only want to download two new songs this week then replace Alexandra Burke with 'Embrace' and ditch Robbie Williams for 'Dancing On The Water'. We promise you will be listening to these for a lot longer than you will 'Bad Boys' or 'Bodies'.

Pnau 'Dancing On The Water'

Pnau feat. Ladyhawke 'Embrace'

Click here to go to the iTunes store and listen to more / buy the album.

Old music Tuesday: Ace Of Base 'Always Have, Always Will'

To be honest we could have chosen any Ace Of Base song and it would have been a good choice because ALL Ace Of Base songs are good.

Everyone remembers 'The Sign' (we saw it and it opened up our eyes), 'All That She Wants' (it was confusing at the age of ten to know exactly how to give her another baby), 'Happy Nation' (beat that Enya), 'Young & Proud' (amazing trance synths), Life Is A Flower (Oh, no, actually this one was rubbish. And it had honey and a washing machine and a shopping trolley and a goat in the video). But in the end we went for 'Always Have, Always Will':



Things to remember about this song:
1. It was released in 1998 not 1968.

b. You might hear a Grandparent saying "They don't write them like this any more" about some old crooner, and you can say "Yes they do" and put this on. That means, in scientific terms, it is timeless and may be of interest to Newton, Leibniz, Kant et al.

3. You can tell the band were at the height of their fame during this release because it's the obligatory 'we're too busy to record a video so here's some shots of us on tour video'.

FOUR. It's the only song in the world you'd rather do backing than lead on. "Even when it didnt show" "Doesnt matter where we go".

v. It's the greatest non-Christmas-Christmas song ever.

Ace Of Base returned recently with a remixed version of their 'Wheel Of Fortune' single. It had string synths and a vocoder on it. It didn't have Linn (the blonde one) on it. We would like Linn to come back and do a proper reunion, but apparently she is a recluse now so that's that buggered.

Yeah, cheers Royal Mail

It is very hard running a cutting edge, up to the minute, hip, trendy (stop laughing at the back) blog.

So we were mighty pissed off when the greedy men and women of the Royal Mail went on strike and did not deliver our Sound Of Arrows vinyls on time. Today, 22 days late, they arrived.

It was totally worth the wait. Beautiful artwork, lovely white vinyl and the music etched into those little grooves is not bad either.



Get your own grubby fingers all over the static inducing vinyls from here or here. We get commission for posts like this, right?

It's a yes from us : Yes Giantess 'The Ruins'

We've written about Yes Giantess before. We've written about Starsmith before (see 'Ellie Goulding'). We declared our <3 for them both last time we wrote about them (that's an ASCII 'heart', not a 'less than 3'). Now we might have to up the <3 to a full on love. The reason? The track 'The Ruins'. Performed by Yes Giantess. Produced by Starsmith. You're seeing how this works now?

It sounds like an MGMT/Empire Of The Sun track that's been taken to the local discotheque and been dressed in a glittery jacket and then been made to dance to some 80s pop. All of these things obviously appear quite high on a list of things which are brilliant. Therefore, one must conclude that 'The Ruins' is brilliant. It is.

Listen to it here.

Yes Giantess are fast turning into a band who have recorded enough brilliant tracks to turn then into a recording artist who can put out an album that is full of brilliant tracks.

Starsmith is fast turning into a producer who has produced enough brilliant tracks to turn him into a producer who could make some of the future's most brilliant albums full of brilliant tracks.

Well done everyone for making our Monday a little bit more optimistic about the future of music.

*Use of the word 'brilliant' quota filled for the week*

You can find Yes Giantess putting their songs on their myspace here
You can find Starsmith putting other people's songs on his myspace here.

New music Monday: I Always Wanted A Pony! 'The Weekend'

The list of things we wanted when we were little was pretty much endless (Mr Frosty, Playdough MopTop hairshop etc) but one thing we were never fussed on was a pony. We've been on a horse (went up a hill and back down again in Wales once) and we're not desperate to repeat the experience.

However, as has been proven often, the application of a horse to pop music generally results in rather brilliant things (see Goldfrapp's 'Ride On A White Horse', Sound of Arrows 'Into The Cloud' video, Empire of the Sun's 'Without You' video and err, 'all the others'). The latest to be added to that exhaustive list is I Always Wanted A Pony! who are not only proof that horses in pop music is a good idea but that all the best pop music comes from Sweden.

We've been following this Swedish duo for a while and the arrival of new songs on their MySpace is more than reason enough for us to write about them. There's a bit of eighties electro in their sound but an equal amount of early nineties house influences to ensure they stand out from the crowd (and it's a crowd that is only getting bigger).

Here's a preview of what to expect from the amazing 'The Weekend'. And yes, those are horses you can see.


Their track 'The Weekend' is one of three new songs on their MySpace and while the Human League-influenced 'Standing Without You' is thoroughly brilliant (as is the Sally Shapiro-a-like 'Temporary'), this is the one that makes us feel a bit funny on the inside. It reminds us a lot of Lo Fi Fnk at their most lucid, and perhaps after a good talking to from the record label about making sure there are some hit singles onto the next album. Moody vocals drawl over brilliantly retro club sounds and from its throbbing opening to the huge glittery pop explosion of it's finale, 'The Weekend' is 100% incredible and I Always Wanted A Pony! might just become our new favourite band...

Listen to 'The Weekend' (and a lot more) at the I Always Wanted A Pony! MySpace.

Robot Pigeon Chart: 11 October '09

Has it really been a week already? Learning to cook a vegan chocolate cake aside, let's look back at some of our highlights from the last 168 hours.

1. Datostrom - 'All I Never (Diamond Cut Remix)'
We stumbled across this whilst brushing up on our Diamond Cut back catalogue. Occasionally Robot & Pigeon agree on something, and when we do it usually means it's pretty bloody good. For example we both like Oreos. Take our word on this one and click here NOW.

2. Dragonette - 'Pick Up The Phone'

The album 'Fixin' To Thrill' is out in those countries which were sensible enough to embrace this wonderful band when they released their debut 'Galore'. You have no-one to blame but yourselves if you didn't buy it and can't find it in the shops. Thankfully, there is this thing called the internet. You should really try and get access to it because it will mean you can look at this and hear the new single, which is effing bloody brilliant.

3. The Whip - 'Secret Weapon'
The Whip's Destination X was, on the whole, cruelly overlooked by the record buying public. Luckily, they sold a song to a beer company, and that's probably what's paid for the recording of the new album. Thank you generic lite beer because if it wasn't for you we'd probably not been able to hear 'Secret Weapon'. It's like Trash 2.0, and we think everyone with ears will generally agree it's amazing.

4.Ellie Goulding - 'Under The Sheets'
Last week we said we wanted this released - this week it was AND was put up for free download as well. Who knew people ever listen to us, huh? It's still great and you might want to snap up those limited vinyls to put on either your turntable/ebay in 6 months when Goulding is HUGE.

5.Sound Of Arrows - 'Into The Clouds (Fear Of Tigers Remix)'
Seven days later and our beautiful vinyls have still, still, STILL not arrived. Though somehow our council tax bill did. Conspiracy. We still got our Sound Of Arrows fix though by dragging the band to a coffee shop and demanding they tell us all about the last time they rode a horse. Which they did. And you would find the transcript of that, oh, roughly...here.

Reset: we have looked into the French electro scene and can report that it is still very good

Any old loser can whack Daft Punk, Justice, SebastiAn, Boyz Noize and MSTRKRT in their Top Friends on MySpace but it's not often the band in question has actually got the tunes to rival those guys.

French duo Reset however, may just be one of the few new bands who could justify slotting themselves in with the French electro elite simply because they are completely and utterly amazing and their music is some of the most exciting dance music we've heard since, well, since we first heard some of their MySpace friends for the first time.

'Ripped' sounds like a harder take on DJ Medhi's seminial 'Signatune' while 'Push Start' is a heavy, 3am club tune - you've been out long enough for everything to be in full swing, but not so long people are shuffling around in their jackets chewing on non-existent gum.

For more heavy dance please see also 'Addiction', but if you are in the mood for something a touch more euphoric then maybe the hands-in-the-air (not on a rollercoaster) vibe of 'Restart' will make your stomach go upside down like it did for us.

The latest track on their MySpace is a remix of 'Let Me Go' by Redial (who will investigate and report back on our findings) which takes a lot of influence from Calvin Harris' 'You're Not Alone' (which is very much a good thing).

Now, we've dropped so many names of amazing bands in this that if you don't now click the link and actually listen to this stuff, we may as well just give up and post the chronic new Sugababes video instead.

Reset at MySpace.

Are YouTube viewers the type to vote for X Factor?

Because if they do, then Olly Murs has got it pretty much in the bag. Below are the viewing figures for the videos of the performances from last night's show as posted on the official X Factor YouTube channel as of midday today.

We found it kinda surprising to see who the most popular are - including former strippers Kandy Rain.

Olly Murs: 29,211
(Leon Jackson with his top button done up).

Danyl Johnson: 29,095
(We are not impressed. Arrogant).

Lucie Jones: 26,429
(Did you know she's from Wales? She's not mentioned it enough yet).

Kandy Rain: 24,328
(Not quite as bad as Bad Lashes but no Same Difference).

Rachel Adedeji: 23,291
(Almost fell off some steps).

Rikki Loney: 17,429
(Hit all the right notes - just not at the right time or in the right order).

Jamie Archer: 16,614
(Isn't it gay code to have a scarf hanging out of your back pocket?)

Lloyd Daniels: 14,329
(Wibbly).

John & Edward: 13,936
(We love them).

Miss Frank: 13,905
(Three soloists, not a group).

Stacey Solomon: 8,061
(Nice on the telly, but can you imagine sharing a room with her?)

Joe McElderry: 7,253
(Who? We couldn't remember who he was even when he was on stage singing).

We love John & Edward. The end.