Crookers: Tons Of Friends

Crookers, with 'Tons Of Friends', have essentially done away with the A&R man saying "blah blah blah put this on the album blah blah blah", and delivered a 20 track album featuring a slew of guests and spanning a whole range of genres/styles.

This results in the album becoming something of a Pic 'n' Mix affair (RIP Woolworths), and there are certainly several tracks which RobotPigeon aren't keen on, whilst others leap out as being the best things our brains have encountered this year. If we weren't so hungover to hell we would run out clubbing right this second.

If you hate RobotPigeon then we suspect you'll love all the tracks we don't talk about. If you like us (Hi Mum), then these are the ones you should put in the vicinity of an ear drum:

1. 'We Love Animals'
Guest Starring: Soulwax & Mixhell
Not since Love City Groove have we heard a track featuring windchimes. WINDCHIMES we tell you. Look at the guest stars on this track. How can you go wrong? It's a bit of a slow build, but when your hit the 3min30 mark, all hell starts to break loose.

2. 'No Security'
Feturing: Kelis
Naughty fur lover Kelis adds her distinctive vocal to a dirty little number complete with woop woops, a 'no security' refrain which we can see ourselves hollering at the wrong point in a club, and some filthy beats.

3. 'Hold Up Your Hand'
With: Roisin Murphy
Playing up to Roisin's eccentricity this stutters along at a mid-tempo pace and let's Roisin's vocal tease you into a false sense of security on the direction the track's going. More of a warm up for her second track on the album...

4. 'Hip Hop Changed'
Also starring: Rye Rye
Catchy as hell, and featuring an air horn, this veers close to dub-step rather than electro, but if Robot & Pigeon can cope with it you can too.

5. 'Cooler Couleur'
Special Guest Star: Yelle
Yelle, Yelle, Yelle. *excitement overload warning* Like MIA's trendy French cousin, Yelle steps in and smashes the delivery on this. There's a beautiful uplifitng chorus and a jaunty skip through the verses, whilst her pronunciation of 'whot the fock' is something to be savoured. Absolute genius.

6. 'Put Your Hands On Me'
And: Kardinal Offishall & Carla-Marie
We want to be in the middle of a field having taken a funny smartie and having a thoroughly lovely time. This is so much fun it hurts.

7. 'Royal T'
With: Roisin Murphy (again)
The best thing Roisin has ever done *controversy alert*. From an understated opening this bursts into an experimental, crazy, frantic, minimalistic dance pop mash up. "I don't wanna hear the alarm" is the pop hook Lady Gaga is gagagging for, and if we don't hear an announcement that Crookers are going to produce Roisin's next album we will scream and scream and scream until we are sick.

8. 'Remedy'
Coupled with: Miike Snow
See: this

9. 'Transilvania'
Accompanying: Steed Lord
Steed Lord step in to provide an Eartha Kitt/Grace Jones hybrid vocal, we're sure both ladies would approve, especially if Eartha Kitt was still alive. This is absolutely great.

10. 'Have Mercy'
Mit: Carrie
Forget DJ Sammy's 'Heaven (Candlelight Mix)', THIS is how you do a dance track which is also a ballad. Carrie's vocal is raw and emotional, and this, against any logical reasoning, tugs at our heart strings.

11. Lone White Wolf
Avec: Tim Burgess
Tim Burgess off of The Charlatans. Who knew, eh? Another downtempo number, and a great vocal. Demonstrates why dance music is better than indie. End of discussion.

Conclusion: These 11 tracks are all fucking amazing, and are an early contender for album of the year. Even if we did make the tracklisting ourselves. Don't forget there are another 9 you might also like. Well done Crookers.

Make your own version of 'Tons Of friends', or just buy the whole thing (wild) on pre-order here.
Add to Crookers 'Tons Of Friends' on Myspace.

Ready For The Weekend (and 'The Fight'): Young Punx (Phonat's Punkstep Mix)

Robot & Pigeon would not be all that good in a fight. The best we could do is the punchy dance move from Cheryl Cole's 'Fight For This Love' routine. What we are very good at is dancing to some loud music, and Phonat has just provided some for our weekend delectation by revving up Young Punx's 'Ready For The Fight'.



If you couple this with Fear Of Tigers' Yes Giantess remix, and Holy Ghosts' Friendly Fires cover, you are pretty much set for a playlist from your office to the pub this evening. Thanks RobotPigeon. You're welcome loyal reader/PR person checking we're writing nice things.

Certified brilliant (by us) - Friendly Fires vs Holy Ghost

The press release waffle goes something like thus:

Two bands meet at a festival (Calvi Rocks in Corsica), get drunk and decide to cover each other's songs. The bands in question are the amazing Friendly Fires and the equally very-decent Holy Ghost.

But unlike most drunken promises ('I will definitely, DEFINITELY do that thing you asked me to do / call you tomorrow and we'll meet up') this one has come to be - and not just in some sort of throw-away Live Lounge or b-side manner, but as a real life single, as Friendly Fires and Holy Ghost release a double a-sided single (which doesn't make a lot of sense for those among us who buy their music on iTunes) which is getting a proper release. In America.

Here we have the Holy Ghost cover of Friendly Fires 'On Board'. The Friendly Fires album was our favourite boys-in-a-band album of 2009 and Holy Ghost! have taken their furious indie-disco track, turned it electronic and put a woman on it. It's rather brilliant and it's rather below.

Holy Ghost 'On Board' (Friendly Fires cover version)

Friendly Fires have covered Holy Ghost's 'Hold On' and both will be released together. This event will take place, and be available in various outlets, on 8 March.

The RobotPigeon spiral of doom: Who's afraid of the giant?

That vaguely cryptic headline refers to two things.

1. We are yet again talking about people we have mentioned over and over and over again.
2. Those people are Fear of Tigers and Yes, Giantess.

You may be aware that both are brilliant. One is a remixer - the other a band.

Fear of Tigers has remixed Yes, Giantess.

The results are spectacular.

Yes Giantess 'The Ruins' (Fear of Tigers remix)

Marvellous, non?

Camden Crawl Line Up Deconstructed

When Camden is not on fire it is one of London's premier attractions. It boasts dingy pubs vibrant nightlife, drug dealers trendy eateries on every street corner, and an overpriced jumble sale a world famous market. Every year some boys in skinny jeans the cream of the music industry descend on this cultural epicenter to experience Camden Crawl - two days of live music spread over a number of Camden's top venues (and Jongleurs).

All amusing cynicism aside, Camden does still manage to retain an air of excitement and trendiness (a horrible little word) rarely seen elsewhere in the UK, and the organisers of this years Camden Crawl have pulled together a rather interesting line-up.

Here's who we will watch if we go. What usually happens is that we go to one venue, get horrendously drunk and then don't go anywhere else...

The Drums:
Everyone will go to see them play 'Let's Go Surfing'. Right now you're probably thinking "I haven't heard that (but I have heard Surfin' USA)", but you have heard it. It goes like this:



NME said they are "New York's official Coolest New Band", which, whilst not making much grammatical sense at all, sounds wonderful and hip.

The Sunshine Underground:
A band so criminally underrated that we are going to pretend they are entirely new and that no-one has ever heard of them before. So go and see this wonderful new band and tell all your friends that YOU SAW THEM FIRST. (Buy their debut album 'Rasie The Alarm' here, and their new album 'Nobody's Coming To Save You' here)

Alex Metric (Live):
It's nice to know that Mr Metric will appear live rather than dead *chortle*. We suspect what this billing indicates is that everyone currently thinks of Alex Metric as a DJ, and forgets that he actually writes wonderful songs, which he also sings AND appears in the videos of. Although, we've still not forgiven his press people for ignoring our guest list request recently. So we can't vouch for his live show. Sorry : (

Autokratz:
A friend of Kitsune is a friend of RobotPigeon. We have seen Autokratz several times, but can't remember a single one of them: we just know we had a lovely time™. We really like the track 'Always More', and it has a video to go with it which is handy for, you know, posting and stuff:



Chew Lips:
The album 'Unicorn' is fucking brilliant.

Invasion:
WARNING: Invasion are about as far from Same Difference as you can get and play loud guitars. Luckily you don't need floppy hair and sweaty arm pits to enjoy them because their songs bounce along at the pace of dance music. They have charmed RobotPigeon and we think they will charm you too. We wouldn't have written about them here otherwise as it would have been a waste of everyone's time and money wouldn't it?

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
Last, but not least, more like last and most favourite. This video tells you everything you need to know, but we'll write some words afterwards as well for the more inept amongst you.



Here are the aforementioned words to describe Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs: WE LOVE YOU.

And that is Camden Crawl sewn up in one blog post *dusts hands off*

Tickets and all that boring, money grabbing nonsense are here.

Stop everything and listen to someone who certainly knows her way around a pop song or two

Here's a girl we like. She's called Spark and she is a girl of the 'singing pop songs' variety.

The thinking behind her sounds is thus:

1. 'Overload' by Sugababes is still quite good, isn't it.
2. 'Remember when Lily Allen puts loads of demos on MySpace but they were actually really polished and pretty much finished - that worked out OK didn't it'.

And so we have Spark. A very talented young woman who makes very modern quirky-lady-guitar-pop - despite 'Scream' sounding an awful lot like a single that was released ten years ago (see Sugababes reference above).

Elsewhere, 'Revolving' is a childlike experience which manages to do 'quirky' without making us want to batter ourselves around the head with a new Kate Nash MP3 that we have downloaded and burned onto CD specifically to inflict physical damage with.

Best of all however is 'Shut Out The Moon': a huge, glorious debut single if ever we've heard one. If we just say that it sounds like Xenomania producing Paloma Faith then you will get the impression that we are not talking some seen-it-all-before singer/songwriter and that Spark is someone who we all should be keeping an eye on over the coming months.

CLICK THIS LINK FOR SOME BRILLIANT POP MUSIC. NOW.

Music Maths #2: Gabriella Cilmi 'On A Mission'

+

=

Cilmi now.

Welcome back...

Cheryl Tweedy...
Now, will everyone be as keen on buying music by a 'Tweedy' as they have been a 'Cole'?

Here's some stuff from The Sun newspaper about this separation whatnot.

*Insert headline with general 'Aeroplane fly you away to the eighties with retro mixtape' effect*

In something altogether less ranty than the previous post, (Robot officially 'went off on one') here is something more listenable and all-round more good natured. A new mixtape from amazing Belgium remix-types Aeroplane. In our eyes, their finest moment was with their incredible mix of Friendly Fires' super-sexy 'Paris'. Robot done 'it' with someone listening to it once. It was quite nice.

Minds out of the gutter, ears in to the music: this Aeroplane mixtape is bloody brilliant and packed full of people WE HAVE NOT HEARD BEFORE*. It could therefore have served as a starting block for us to introduce ten incredible tracks to you one by one - but ten songs are better than one (as granny used to say). She didn't, she just used to bang on the window and yell at the kids on the grass outside :(

Here is the tracklisting:

Golden Bug 'Flamingo'
On The Prowl Presents OTP Party Breaks #1 'Lifetime Groove'
Black Van 'Yearning'
Bottin & Rodion 'Galli (Give It Up)'
Hannulelauri 'Injury Time'
The Holidays 'Moonllight Hours' (The Swiss Remix)
Burns 'So Many Nights'
Slice & Soda 'Year Of The Dragon' (Villa Remix)
DyE 'Nike'
Fern Kinney 'Baby Let Me Kiss You'

Aeroplane 'February Mixtape'

It's basically a brilliant collection of retro eighties and eighties-inspired tracks which show exactly where Aeroplane take their amazingly warm sound from. Don't let the likes of La Roux fool you - the eighties wasn't all harsh, ice-cold electro, there was a good deal of soulful, uplifting pop music to be heard as well. Highlights are: On The Prowl Presents OTP Party Breaks #1 'Lifetime Groove' for it's Goddamn soulfulness, The Holidays 'Moonllight Hours' (The Swiss Remix) for it's choruses and Slice & Soda'Year Of The Dragon' (Villa Remix) for the big violin bit running all the way through it. All thoroughly bloody marvellous.

*This is a lie as we have mentioned Burns before. We just didn't want to seem like know it all. We know a lot, just not 'it all'.

Here is the Aeroplane MySpace. FYI.

The Metro: 'Oh boo hoo hoo isn't pop music dreadful'Robot Pigeon: 'Well, no actually, it really isn't'

No one is under the impression that music from Glee, JLS or Katy Perry is of any great significance in the grand scheme of things and we won't be burying any of it in boxes under schools for future generations to unearth but lets be honest here: the current top twenty is a vibrant and exciting place to be right now. Unless of course, you're writing articles about pop music in The Metro newspaper, in which case you're seeing something terrible and something we, as British people, should apparently be ashamed of. At least according to the following article in today's paper:


Should we be ashamed of what's in our charts? Oh course we bloody shouldn't be and we clearly AREN'T ashamed of liking fun pop music because we're all buying so bloody much of it right now. Should we be embarrassed for buying music by reality show stars? Yes - if their music is crap, but the days of Steve Brookstein are gone and the stuff JLS, Leona or Alexandra Burke are turning out is some of the best and most polished pop music this country has produced in years. So what if they were discovered on TV - do people write moany little articles about Ant & Dec once being on Byker Grove? If we don't care about how they got their jobs, why should we care about how Marvin, Aston, JB and Oritse got theirs? Call Ke$ha annoying, immature or just plain stupid - but 'Blah Blah Bland'? No sorry, you used that because the word fit. She's hardly Mozart but she's anything but bland. Even Marina and The Diamonds isn't spared an insult and a dreadfully clunky pun or two.

This vicious little swipe at pop music is something we thought we'd left behind in the days when all people cared about was The View, The Kooks and those countless other indentikit guitar bands circa 2006. A thoughtless piece of writing which tries to take fault with something making a lot of people very happy. The writer may have gotten away with it too if he hadn't then gone on to namecheck the likes of The Human League, XTC or The Stranglers to highlight the last time Britain was making pop music to be proud of. It saddens us to know that comment pieces on modern pop music are allowed to be written by people with a cassette collection that has not moved on from 1982.

Places like the Top Forty is not meant for people like this and the writer in question should steer far away from it at all costs - it would be like asking your grandmother for her opinion on the latest Saw movie, your four-year-old nephew what he thinks about War & Peace or RobotPigeon what they think about UK politics. It would be ill-informed and completely irrelevant.

Better late than never: Yes Giantess 'The Ruins' video

We're not totally sure how the video for Yes Giantess's 'The Ruins' passed us by, especially after all the 'ooh it's amazing' type things we've written about it both recently and not so recently, but it did.

We could tell you what happens in the video but that wouldn't A. ruin things for you and B. not be of all that much worth because the general plot is that NOT A LOT HAPPENS. There are some men with alien masks on though - which is quite nice.



Thanks to Wotyougot for the heads up.

Thoughts on the new UK Top Forty

There's no messing about with this: a new entry for Leona Lewis at No.40 really isn't good enough. It's borderline embarassing. After the chart run on singles from her 'Echo' album ('Happy': No.2, 'Stop Crying Your Heart Out': No.29) not to mention her track from Avatar ('I See You': didn't chart) we can't help but wonder what is going on at SYCO headquarters (lots of pictures of Alexandra Burke covering up those old Leona ones - we imagine).

Elsewhere, people are too busy buying the Glee album (it's No.1 so it's hardly all 'boo hoo hoo' round those parts) to want to bother with the new singles (despite 'Don't Stop Believing' and 'Halo/Walking On Sunshine' still comfortable inside the Top Ten) as'Keep Holding On' (the one about Finn and Quinn) and 'No Air' (the one about Finn and Rachel) chart at 47 and 52 respectively.

Ke$ha's 'Tik Tok' follow up 'Blah Blah Blah' is leading the poor girl out of the Top 40 as her two singles land at 29 and 30. People are still umming and ahhing over Jedward - after a fall from No.2 to No.12 last week, their quite-good 'Under Pressure' is pushing its big pointy hairdo back towards the Top Ten as it moves up to No.11 and for some unknown reason, Lemar is back in the charts with a decent new entry at No.8. There is no accounting for taste or old, forgotten reality TV stars. So maybe there is hope for Leona after all.

Otherwise, there is little else of interest in the Top 40.

More Remix Sunday: Kirstenana 'Love Love Love' Bit Funk remix

In a late entry for (the now thoroughly established, yet still hastily fabricated) 'Remix Sunday' we just got winged another wonderful reswizzle of a brilliant track.

Again, it's two people we've harked on about previously coming together in an harmonious union akin to sausage and mash: Bit Funk and Kirstenana.

We have to be honest we still regularly listen to Flashworx's take on Kirstenana's 'Happy', and Bit Funk has now provided the perfect companion to sit alongside that with his rework of 'Love Love Love'.



These 'remixes' are so good we want them to be the actual production for the album. You've got your first two singles right there.

Bit Funk's upbeat vision of 'Love Love Love', replete with handclaps, bounces along at a terrific pace. It's nearly five and a half minutes long, but it feels like it's all over in thrity seconds and you're drawn to go back to the beginning and start again (which also fits nicely with the sentiment of the lyrics). That's how we've just lost half an hour of our evening.

We should also point out how terrific Kirstenana is shaping up to be. To stand out as a female electro artist in the wake of the saturation of La Little Goulding & The Diamonds is really something of an achievement. She has the vocal inflections there to make her distinguishable as a vocalist, and the song writing is catchy as hell.

We love, love, love this. All round utter excitement, and just before bed on a Sunday as well.

Kirstenana on Myspace
Bit Funk on Myspace

Remix Sunday: The Venus Stare 'Close To You' Fear Of Tigers Remix

There is no such thing as 'remix Sunday'. It is a made up concept like Christianity which we invented so that we could do a post on Fear Of Tigers' remix of The Venus Stare's 'Close To You'.

Every time we hear 'Close To You' we want to go and watch The Breakfast Club, but now that Fear Of Tigers has fiddled with it we want to go to a roller disco and do a sexy/slightly awkward dance with Molly Ringwald instead.



Fear Of Tigers should just spend 2010 remixing every song released because everything he touches turns to *insert awful 'Midas' metaphor here*.

To avoid repeating ourselves we'll put a link here to the nice words we wrote about The Venus Stare last year. That still stands, and we are excited to see what happens with the band this year. It's nice to see someone embracing the sound of the 80's rather than regurgitating it with a post-modern ironic wink. More songs please.

And here's our favourite part. The single will be released as download (boring) and as a limited edition cassette. Oh em eff rofl gee. Click this and buy it for the sheer wonderfulestness of whoever came up with that idea. Yeah, yeah technology is all well and good, but can you wind it in with a pencil when it all gets chewed up? No you bloody well cannot.

Gaze at The Venus Stare here
Mr Fear Of Tigers is here

Music Maths #1: Kids Of 88 'Just A Little Bit'

What do you get if you cross the melody from this:

with some of the lyrics (plus a bit of the title) from this:

using the vocal delivery of this:

plus some track from this:

?

Well, this:

Oh, and the artwork reminds us of this:

'Some Girls' was out in 2004, 'Ooh Aah...Just A Little Bit' in 1996, 'Tiger Feet' 1974, 'Strict Machine' 2003, and 'Remedy' 1999.

'Just A Little Bit' is out this week.

More, more, more: Fenech Soler 'LA Love' 10 Rapid remix

Fenech Soler are fast becoming Pigeon's favourite band. And that could lead to some or all of the following: stalking, phone calls, fake interview requests, camping outside hotels travel lodges, newspapers with eyeholes, Single White FenechSolermales etc etc.

Luckily, they have been clever enough to distract us momentarily with this wonderful remix of 'LA Love'



It's by 10 Rapid (pictured), and it's a full on dance floor re-working with the original not kicking in for a good 1 and a half minutes. We like it when that happens. It's like Where's Wally, only with a song instead of a gimp in a stripey top.

3.37 is amazing.

Sorry this was a bit brief, we are off to dress as a girl and pretend to be Ben's girlfriend. Oh God, that really is a bit too much. *ANNIE WILKES ALERT*

We've got tickets to see Jonsi - but we didn't want to mention it unless you got yours first and it sold out :(

Jonsi, as you may well know, is the lead singer of Sigur Ros. Or was the lead singer of Sigur Ros. Sigur Ros are no more. Or Sigur Ros are on an 'extended hiatus'. Either way, Jonsi is now a separate entity from Sigur Ros and is embarking on a tour in May.

Having listened to his debut album Sigur Ros fans can rest assured that the sounds they love are present and very much correct on Jonsi's solo album. There's orchestras and choirs and allsorts. All in all, the Jonsi album is the next Sigur Ros album with a new lick of paint and a vaguely more commercial edge this time around. But don't expect any dance routines or 'ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce on stage Robyn/Will.I.Am/Katy Perry' at the live shows, because things have not gone that far awry.

However, according the following waffley video, you can expect a lot more than a man stood by a microphone singing his new songs.



IMPRESSIVE.

Anyway, here is the full list of UK dates:

26 May 2010, London HMV Forum

And here is a link to click to then buy tickets to see Jonsi live.

Yes, we will take a chance on this: Groove Armada 'Paper Romance' Classixx Version

Someone would have to balls this equation up big time to make a hash out of it (they don't, we're just saying they would):

Groove Armada + Ben Duffy (Fenech Soler) + Saint Saviour x Classixx = WONDERFUL

It's 'Paper Hearts', the song that's been crashing around in our head for a few weeks now, but (in an unusual move) is brought downtempo a notch or two by a Classixx remix.

Classixx are the people who make brilliant dance music and do brilliant remixes including, but not limited to, Shiny Toy Guns' 'Starts With One', which should have been massive but wasn't.

Saint Saviour is the lovely lady who sums herself up better than we could as a singer who writes "brooding love songs for myself and happy clappy ones for dance producers". Amusing, pretty, talented and self-deprecating. We backwards arrow three her.

Fenech Soler are the band that Pigeon won't stop banging on about, and is wetting himself over the prospect of an album.

Groove Armada: 'If Everybody looked The Same', 'At The River', 'Groove Is On', 'Hands Of Time', 'Song 4 Mutya'. Need we say more? No. But now we sort of are. Shh RobotPigeon, here's the remix:



These links go to the relevant Myspace pages (unless we've done it wrong):
Groove Armada
Saint Saviour
Fenech Soler
Classixx

A band we like have some new songs on their MySpace - that's news right?

Hello. There is a band we liked called Kyte who we have mentioned before and who have been slowly and quietly working on some rather lovely music for the past few years. They are usually referred to as 'the British Sigur Ros' on account of their music being all dreamy and soft and wonderful. Now, that's not exactly an unfair comparison (because, like, Sigur Ros are all 'wow' and 'brillz' etc) but there's a lot more to Kyte than being the same as another band from the same continent but with a different accent.

There is a potential hit single in their latest music for a start. 'Fear From Death' is the closest thing to a pop song Kyte have ever recorded and made public, and not only because it raises the tempo above 'melancholy' and the aforementioned 'dreamy' lull their music usually tends to settle itself in. Sure, it sounds like they realised this themselves and thought 'oh crap, we really need something a little faster on the album' but there's no denying this huge pop song works - and hits every possible mark on the way there. Feel-good, inspiring and uplifting - yep, that'll do for us.

Oh, and then there's also 'The Smoke Saves Lives' and 'Like She Said'. Also amazing in the more tradition sense of the word 'Kyte'. All of this just makes us think how much of a shame it is that Kyte didn't have any of this ready for that big important BBC poll that women who make pop music seem to win with alarming regularity these days.

Anyway, words are irrelevant when there's listening to be done. Click here for some 'Kyte at MySpace' related greatness. Thanks and bye.

PS. All these wonderful new songs are from their upcoming, and certainly wonderful album, 'Dead Waves'.

Here is a poster for a charity event

If you haven't spent all your pocket money on charity singles for Simon Cowell Haiti yet then we would like you to go to the above club night please.

It is in aid of The Consortium For Street Children, and is being put on by the wonderful Play It By Ear Club who seem to have a knack for booking all our favourite bands.

This time you can go and hear the biggest dance song of the year (TBC) 'The Radio' being performed by H-Boogie, witness a live oxymoron in the form of Rotten Hill Gang who MC whilst dressed as Victorian gents, and see Lunar Youth who are on our list of 'bands to see now because they'll be too massive to even get a ticket for this time next year'.

There will also be an auction (don't scratch your nose) for t-shirts designed by a whole load of celebrities from the worlds of modeling/music/Big Brother including Elle McPherson, Biffy Clyro, Coolio, The Maccabees, Mumford & Sons and Bombay Bicycle Club.

You can stop reading now. Unless you are planning to attend in which case these are the technical details:

Sat 27th Feb
7pm - 2am
The Monarch
40-42, Chalk Farm Road
NW1 8BG

*End of our 'good deed for the day year'*

This is 100% the best thing to have happened so far this year: Yes Giantess 'The Ruins'

In the UK it is currently a five past one in the morning. Pigeon's alarm is going to go off in a few hours, but we had to take time out of our precious sleep to write about this.

It's Yes Giantess' 'The Ruins', the demo of which was kicking around last year and the second we heard it we started to pester and pester and pester the band to find out what the release plan with it was. And now it is here and now we are all flustered and over-excited.



(SoundCloud seems to be having a few problems with the track right now - it's probably tired - but it's working fine here)

It's out on Neon Gold and you can buy it here (US) or here (UK). The usual 500 limited blah blah blah. Seriously, get this track on the radio NOW because everyone needs to hear it and it needs a full release and needs to be massive.

It was Valentine's today, and that makes us want to vomit, and we don't love any human beings, but WE LOVE THE RUINS.

Here are some words, in a list formation, explaining why:

1. It is brilliant.
2. It is brilliant.
3. The waw-waw-waw-waw refrain made on some instrument we don't know the name of, but which underpins the opening.
4. Jan Rosenfeld's vocal.
5. The bit at 2.01 where it drops out to the extent that you think "It can't have finished already, but they wouldn't have the balls to fade it out for that long...OH they really did"
6.The bit at 2.39 where it kicks back in fully.

There are remixes by Fear Of Tigers *screams* and Baby Monster *faints*. We feel like someone is doing this release with the sole intention of making our life a better place. Thank you Neon Gold.

Can you tell we are tired, and yet also bouncing up and down on our bed with excitement? Now it really is time to sleep. Oh, ok, just one more play...

Unicorn Kid Interview: "The contract stated that I would be given a real taxidermied owl"

Unicorn Kid makes chip music. This is nothing to do with potatoes and everything to do with computers and games consoles. We had never heard of it - until Unicorn Kid came along.

With his trademark lion hat and energetic live performances, Unicorn Kid caught the eye of the Pet Shop Boys who asked him to remix their single 'Did You See Me Coming'. Following that he was invited to tour America with the currently-quite-popular Owl City. Not bad for an 18 year old from Edinburgh.

With a single due next month, and a slew of live dates supporting Hadouken!, we caught up with the noisy rave wonderkid and found out why he's definitely not the next Calvin Harris and the ludicrous promises he was made when signing his big exciting record deal...

Hello Unicorn Kid. Important things first. Do you like haggis?
I’m normally a vegetarian, but I like vegetarian haggis. It’s mostly oats anyway isn’t it? So it tastes relatively similar as far as I understand. It’s not even done in a sheep’s stomach any more, it’s done in plastic.

Indeed. So, you’re young, making music and out at clubs a lot. Are you living in an episode of hit E4 youth drama ‘Skins’?
Not at all! My life is relatively boring. I get up in the morning, sit in front of the computer, eat and compose music until I go to bed. Apart from that, unless I’m away on tour or whatever, my life isn’t very Skins at all. I’m sure most of my fans have more exciting lives than me.

Do you ever give yourself a headache listening to your music all day?
Every day. I sometimes have Windows booted on my Mac and I don't know how to turn down the screen brightness when I do that, so the combination of 8-bit loops and an LED backlit monitor on full often bring on horrible headaches.

Have you ever had to use a fake ID for one of your own gigs?
No, but I’ve been thrown out several times for not being old enough.

Before or after you’d played?
Before! The bouncer was like "Do you have ID?", and I said "No, I’m playing". And we got chucked out. So I was like, "fine we won’t play" and the promoter was like "no, no, no…"

Was that the worst gig you've ever played?
Playing In The City this year was pretty horrific. There is nothing more depressing than playing to 40 industry people in a damp Manchester pub.

But it paid off because you’ve bagged a record deal now?
I am signing my deal this week. I can’t tell you the label (RP: it’s Ministry Of Sound). It’s a secret (Ministry of Sound?). I can’t even tweet it (It’s Ministry Of Sound). Then I’m finishing mixing my single that’s going to be out on ‘whatever record label I sign to’ around March. It will have a Norwegian singer, Kate Havnevik, on it. And basically working on the album, finishing that in June, bringing it out at the end of September, and see what happens from there.

In music terms, the sweet and delicate Kate Kate Havnevik is your polar opposite. How on earth did this collaboration come about?
She was on the Owl City tour with me. It’s funny because she really liked one of my really old tracks ‘Biscuits’, and used to sing the melody acapella in the car. She said she wanted to do a song with me and I thought it would be really cool but didn't know how we were going to do it. But between the two of us, we recorded back and forth from our homes and it sounds great.

And will you feature more vocalists on the album?
Probably half and half. Kind of six tracks with singers, six instrumental.

Is there worry with the label that industry big wigs will tone you down and look for commercial hits?
It’s already happened really. I think people want me to be some kind of top ten commercial artist, but that’s not really what I am. I’m not the next Calvin Harris. I just make what I make. I’ve been signed as Unicorn Kid and that’s what they’ll get. Obviously it would be good to have some radio tracks, but I think those happen accidentally. There was a time when I was trying to create commercial track and it wasn’t happening. I just froze up and couldn’t write anything. I was like fuck this I’m just going to do what I want and suddenly things are moving a bit faster.

Did any A&R men ever do anything embarrassingly 'youth' in an attempt to get you to sign to their label?
I went out with a guy from a label one night and mentioned that I liked taxidermied owls and that I'd wanted one for ages. The next day my lawyer is sent a re-draft of the contract and, along with everything else, it stated that I would be given a real taxidermied owl upon signing. I don't really think of that as embarrassing though, I think it was actually completely brilliant and amazing. I didn't actually end up signing to them.

So, of all fantasy animals, why did you name yourself after a horse with a horn?
There’s no real story behind the name, it just kind of came about and fitted in with the fun, magical nature of the music.

We expected you might have a unicorn hat rather than a lion.
I was looking for a unicorn hat at the start, but it didn’t exist. I think I was 15 and I had my first show coming up and I passed a stall that was selling lion hats, cat hats, monkey hats and stuff like that. I wanted an excuse to buy one just because they were so cool. So I settled for a lion, wore it to the first show, put some pictures on Myspace and it took off from there. I have to wear it. I can’t even abandon it now if I want to.

Is it getting a bit smelly?
I actually have lots of them. We’re putting them into production soon so I’ll have an endless supply then.

Have you worried about finding a tarantula in your bananas?
No, but somebody put a picture on Facebook of a tarantula in their grapes - it was Soft Toy Emergency actually - no, never come across tarantula in bananas. Is this a fear of yours?

Yes, and now we have to add grapes to the list of fruits to be wary of as well. It's probably best to leave it there before we develop a fear of greengrocers. Thanks Unicorn Kid!

Make friends with Unicorn Kid here.
Buy some music hereish.

Robyn 'goes down low like she whoah, she whoah oh oh' - apparently

Things we love include:

1. Robyn - and the ups and downs of her music career.
2. Diplo - and the general work of.

Things we don't love include:

1. Reggae and the sounds thereof.

So fortunately the balance is weighted in the favour of 'loving' when it comes to the reggae influenced new track from Diplo and Robyn, 'I Really Don't Want'.

Apparently Robyn 'still runs this thing like a dancehall queen' - which makes no sense at all to us. How would a dancehall queen run things? All we can guess is that she would have us 'dipping down low' and indeed 'picking up slow'* all over the place which would lead to anarachy and more importantly EMBARASSMENT because we struggle to step from left to right in time to the music. Such is the curse of being a white male :(

The song is good. We like it. Robyn is amazing. Diplo is amazing. Reggae is still not so amazing.

Diplo feat. Robyn 'I Really Don't Want'

*We do not quote Christina Milian enough.

So what, is Jonsi going to be a pop star now?

There is clearly no messing around when it comes to the Jonsi solo material. First his 'Go Do' single gets playlisted on Radio One, and now comes the jaw-droppingly beautiful video for the most commercial song Sigur Ros never recorded.



Let's be honest here, there is nothing about this song, video or man himself that is not breathtaking. We are so jealous of how brilliant he is. People may be sad about Sigur Ros 'calling it a day' but when there's the Jonsi solo album to look forward to, we won't be shedding any tears. Sigur Ros are arguably one of the greatest bands of all time, and if they are no more this is a shame, but they were basically getting by on the love of their devoted fans - and while that's nice, you can't pay the bills on love and best wishes. They didn't tour very often (no doubt on account of the shipping costs for all those tubas they'd need for a performance of 'Ara Batur' alone) so it makes sense to send Jonsi off alone and make him the boy Bjork. A plan which seems to be going swimmingly - although probably looks a lot less rosey for the other members of Sigur Ros :(

Although, we can't really see it being a hit single - not when people are so busy buying songs from Glee and the Ke$ha album with such ferocity. All that fun-stuff doesn't leave much time for a little man from Iceland larking around with doves on a beach.

But nonetheless Jonsi = amazing x a million.

Definitely not another post about Ellie Goulding

Isn't it annoying when we bang on about the same old artists time after time? Good job we found this new singer then. Her name is Smelly Goldfish and she has done some wonderful electro-pop type songs. We think she is destined for big things. Here is her new single, 'Starry Eyed', as remixed by Monsieur Adi.



Ok. You've rumbled us. We are writing about Ellie Goulding AGAIN. But we had no choice. Not only is 'Starry Eyed' wholly brilliant in its own right, but Monsieur Adi has delivered such a bang on remix that this should be the one to catapult him into the mainstream.

Far from simply bolstering the BPM and chopping the vocal up a bit, Adi does away altogether with Starsmith's original (glorious) twinkly production. The remix opens timid, yet assured, with some Nintendo style bleeps, before slowly bringing up the original topline, and then smashing it right into the middle of the dancefloor with some driving synths and a hint of vocoder.

What's nice about this remix is the respect with which the original track is handled, whilst creating something wholly new to be played in a club environment. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you make a remix.

Bringers of joy: Baby Monster 'She Comes Alive'

We'll be honest - Pigeon is in an absolutely disgustingly bad mood today. Time of the month or something. BUT, the day has just been salvaged by Baby Monster and their new single 'She Comes Alive'.

When we first heard Baby Monster's debut 'Ultra Violence & Beethoven' we loved it, but in the absence of any other music there was always the danger of it being a complete fluke. Now those dirty synths and distinctive vocals are back and we can conclude that in no way, shape or form are we dealing with any form of flukiness (not a word).

With 'She Comes Alive' Baby Monster are paving the way to becoming a very exciting band indeed. We used some lazy comparisons last time round and we'll drag them out again here: MGMT, Empire Of The Sun, Sigur Ros, Depeche Mode. But those comparisons are rather unfair because Baby Monster sound more like an amalgamation of those bands, which essentially creates an entirely new audible experience. It's like comparing eggs, flour and sugar to a cake.

This single is out on Big Stereo. It's a limited 7" vinly, with download and zzzzz you know the drill. Order it here. We'll stick our necks out and suggest that this might even end up being something of an investment because Baby Monster are going to be BIG. We've bought ours (we haven't, we're hoping to be sent a free one, but when that doesn't turn up we will).

You can listen to the music on Baby Monster's Myspace which we have conveniently linked to here.

Finally! Priors get a release date

The Raw Man/Yann Destal project Priors is finally getting released! Hooray etc. We love pretty much everything they've done to date, although none of it has had a proper release until now, so this is a good excuse to bang on about them a bit more.

The fantastique 'What You Need' is coming out via Eye Industries around March sometime (specific). In preparation there are a million remixes floating about.

This is probably our favourite so far. It's by Grum, and it's all very 80s/Breakfast Club sounding (a good thing):



Whilst you're in Priors mode, you should check out the acoustic version of 'What You Need' on their myspace, which shows how accomplished Destal's vocals are. We saw them live last year, and the noises coming out of his mouth were so perfect that some moron assumed he was miming and jumped onstage to pull the mic away. Cue an 'unplugged' Destal. Trust us, this man can sing with some unquantifiable ethereal quality.

Priors are one of those exciting collaborations which only come along every once in a while so we just need to ensure that everyone starts buying the music. Hopefully we'll get a proper listen to the single edit soon and then we can go for the record number of posts about one song.

Cover Version: Two Door Cinema Club

Just a quick one.

Here is the cover (that little square picture on your ipod) for Two Door Cinema Club's 'Undercover Martyn':


Brilliant song. Brilliant video (see yesterday). Brilliant cover. Well done everyone. *round of applause*

Nothing to do with Courtney: 'Love Hits The Fan' by Phonat

DISCLAIMER: What you are about to experience is one of the most heart pounding, ear drum twisting, brain bashing pieces of electro pop we've ever heard. You should not listen to this in any environment where it would be embarrassing for you to start dancing.



You probably won't read any more of this post as you'll just keep listening to that track over and over. So let us just say Phonat = phenomenal.

There are so many ideas packed into less than three minutes that it's hard to know where to start heaping the praise. Any track that has the audacity to drop out half way through and then come back with a choppy, remixed version of itself makes Robot & Pigeon weep with joy.

The blurby bit: 'Love Hits The Fan' is going to be Phonat's next single, and will feature remixes from Bestrack (exciting) and Sharooz (also exciting), as well as 'Love Hits The Fan' Part 2 (*faints*).

We are not going to bother waiting for the weekend. We will have this on repeat in our kitchen with the volume up all night tonight. Or at least until ten o'clock when we get tired and go to bed.

Myspace type stuff here.

Warning: if you do not like brilliant free music then this free I Am Noxious track is not for you

It's a shocking business model but for fans of moody electronica, the rate at which I Am Noxious is spreading free music around the place is a complete success.

The latest to escape from his East London stable (Note: He is not a horse, that's just an expression) is 'This Is A Ballad' and indeed it is. Unlike the big, brooding electronic masterpieces such as 'Snow In The Summer' or 'Stranded On Love' this is smaller, slower and altogether more lovelorn. We hope he's not too sad because he seems a quiet young man (prefers staying in with his laptop making music to going out getting drunk) but he probably isn't, it is only a pop song after all.

I Am Noxious 'This Is A Ballad'

More I Am Noxious at MySpace.

Music news shock: band tipped for big things release new single and it is very good

Guitar bands have gotten quite good recently. We probably mean, more specifically, that all the crap ones have gone away. So it's too-de-loo The Kooks, The Pigeon Detective and The View and hello the likes of Two Door Cinema Club.

Proving that young men with guitars are not automatically boring bastards, Two Door Cinema Club are breathing life back into boyish guitar music with brilliant songs full of happy melodies and not dressing like miserable idiots. We attribute a lot of this to their involvement with Kitsune, who will have no doubt taken the boys to a few amazing nights out and also shown them around one of their amazing clothing stores.

The band have been tipped for generally quite large things in 2010 and quite rightly so. If their new single 'Undercover Martyn' is anything to go by, they should succeed with ease in today's pop obsessed charts, by proving conclusively that boys with guitars can make brilliant pop music. Not all boys with guitars mind you, mostly just those who bother to brush their hair and teeth and don't wear parka jackets and walk around like they've got a poo in their pants.

Anyway, on with the music - here is the inventive and engaging new Two Door Cinema Club video.

'New' Kylie Minogue tracks of the 7/10 and 8/10 variety

EDIT: Some people are saying these are NOT from the new album recordings and are from the 'X' album sessions. All we know is that A. Kylie Minogue is finishing off her new album and B. Some new songs have appeared online. We cannot give a more specific chronology of recording timeline regarding the following tracks - IS THAT OKAY WITH EVERYONE? Thanksandbye.

With a new Kylie Minogue album just around the corner ('TBC 2010', so it could be a mighty big corner this one) the internet is set to be flooded with the cast-off MP3s and other bits and pieces that have 'leaked' from the recording process. A couple have hit the web already, and while pretty decent does anyone really believe that such a high profile album will be allowed to dribble out onto the internet bit by bit? (Answer: probably not).

First up, there's 'Come Down'. Her little Bollywood stint has clearly rubbed off on Ms Minogue, and the sounds of 'Chiggy Wiggy' are very much present, if refined and a lot less nonsensical on this one. It's not a favourite genre of ours and it's one that we feel has kinda been done to death, but 'Come Down' has the sort of quality you expect from a Minogue of the K variety and is a thoroughly decent 7/10 sort of track.

Kylie Minogue 'Come Down'

Extraordinary day on the other hand is a far more 8/10-ish, and harks back to her Deconstruction days with an ethereal electronica sound, with spooky, ambient pop production that suits her voice perfectly. It's rather wonderful.

Kylie Minogue 'Extraordinary Day

And speaking of her voice, it's certainly one of the most distinctive on the 'Everybody Hurts' Haiti single, and it's brilliant to have it, and Kylie herself, back on the scene. Let's just hope all the singles from the new album aren't screwed up like they were on the 'X' album. The 'The One' debacle springs to mind...

Free stuff from someone very good indeed: Marcel Legane 'Battle' EP

When it comes to singer/songwriters, words like 'James Blunt' and 'Damien Rice' have done so much damage that the very mention of a new, young acoustic chap is enough to cause shudders. However, fortunately for the super-talented, super-amazing (can you tell where we're going with this one?) Marcel Legane, lumping him in with the likes of Blunt is doing him a great disservice.

For one thing - his music is not the dreary balladry that comes with the territory, it's upbeat and kinda fun, as is evident on his new EP 'Battle'. Three songs built around sky-bound harmonies, clever lyrics, brilliant vocals and lovely melodies and best of all released for free - so all in all it's not like you're going to lose out by downloading the following are you?

Marcel Legane - Battle EP by RobotPigeon

Now, what you will have already discovered there are the following tracks: 'Battle', 'Cutting Time' and our personal favourite 'First One To Fall', which is about God, blind faith and general religious oddness, and which is a thoroughly astounding piece of music. The other two are incredible too by the way, it's just that 'First One To Fall' has our favour.

Very good. Well done Mr Legane.

Listen to more Marcel Legane at MySpace.

Whats the difference between teenagers and grown-ups at gigs?

Teenagers bother to dance to the warm-up act, that's what. (Sorry that wasn't more of a punchline, it was a question and answer not a joke). Teenagers are also free from needing to spend any time at the bar, having gotten drunk on the train into town on whatever the hell they've put in a water bottle before leaving home.

But no matter what age you are, it's hard not to dance to the amazing Unicorn Kid - unless you're stood at the back making a video on your iPhone.



That was the amazing Unicorn Kid at The Scala earlier this evening. He is supporting Hadouken! on their UK tour, and as you can probably tell, shortly after filming this we went home to watch Embarrassing Illnesses on Channel 4 instead of staying around for Hadouken!. Apologies. Old. And we didn't want to be mistaken for anybody's dads :(

PS. The above video does Unicorn Kid no justice at all. Click here for a more 'justice-y' listening experience - his MySpace page.

Anoraak remixes Shy Child 'Disconnected'

We are feeling a little worse for wear today following some seeing-of-Shy Child-play-live related antics last night, but this has perked us up a bit. It's the Anoraak (hard to spell) remix of 'Disconnected'. Here it is on a snazzy new player (technology fingers crossed everyone):

SHY CHILD • Disconnected [Anoraak Remix] by anoraak

Anoraak has done some brilliant things:

His remix of Xinobi's 'Day Off' is superb, specifically from 3min36 onwards.

Jupiter's remix of Anoraak's 'Night Drive With You' was one of Pigeon's most played songs of 2009

He is part of the magnificent Valerie collective

He has also remixed Mika : (

But cleverly ditched most of the vocal.

Here is his myspace

This is funny: The Michael Jackson 3D Grammy tribute

Everything about this is mawkish and hilarious very moving indeed. From the whole shambling nature of the production amazing 3D backdrop to the painful awkwardness obvious chemistry between Celine Dion, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson and Smokey Robinson.



It's quite long, and obviously your time is very precious whilst we're happy to fritter ours away on deconstructing youtube videos, so here are the amusing high points:

01:00 - The monkey hits Celine on the head with a branch.

01:39 - First 'what shall we do now?' moment.

02:07 - Celine's 'who's that?' look.

02:25 - Even the little girl in the video is bored.

02:57 - Celine et al are trampled by a 3D stampede. No jokes about Celine Dion looking like a horse please.

03:04 - And then a whale jumps up her skirt.

03:11 - Second 'what the hell shall we do now?' moment.

03:45 - Rihanna has ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE what is going on in front of her is very moved by the whole affair.

03:49 - "What about elephants?" indeed Usher.

03:56 - And yes Carrie Underwood, "What about crying Whales?"

04:16 - Wyclef is bored out of his mind very moved by the whole affair.

05:04 - What is that HORRIBLE noise?

05:10 - Usher appears to have fallen over.

But obviously nothing beats this:


Thanks MJ. Sorry you are dead and stuff.

Here come the Scandinavians: first up, a brilliant free song from Lo Fi Fnk

It is going to be another good year for Scandinavian music. With albums due from Alphabeat, Sound of Arrows and Lo Fi Fnk, we're going to be literally swamped with amazing pop music over the next few months and personally, we can't wait. Bring on the swamping.

And as promised, Lo Fi Fnk have delivered their new track, 'Marching In' for free today. Our official verdict is this: 'Marching In' is the best start to a week we could think of. If only we could be greeted every Monday morning by five minutes of delicate, uplifting pop music - especially when it is both free and has a bongo beat.

'Marching In' is the best song we've heard so far all month (the sort of claim we are confident of making on the first of February) and is available for free right here. Please note: the downloading of this song is highly recommended and WILL make your day better.

Download: Lo Fi Fnk 'Marching In'

Alternatively, you can listen to it here while you look at some mackerel, whales and jellyfish doing what they do best (sploshing around in the sea).

So, should we call them Old Young Pony Club now?

New Young Pony Club aren't so much a band who we'd forgotten about, more one we assumed we'd seen the back of after the (undeserved) failure of their first album, and entire pop music presence, to catch the imagine of the British public had pretty much consigned them to the rubbish bin.

We were wrong. There is a new New Young Pony Club single in the offing and it is called 'Chaos'. Obvously the thinking behind this release is that the music scene has changed so the exact same sound they were churning out a couple of years ago will now resonate with music buyers rather than having a think about what people are listening to now and trying to copy that. It is basically business as usual for Tahita Bulmer and co on this new release.

So if 'Ice Cream' was your thing, you will enjoy the following three minutes very much.



Their debut album was really quite good actually - FYI. If we didn't like this song we would have made a reference to the knackers yard but we do so we won't.