Gaggle (pictured above) is a 20-strong Hackney-based female troupe, which in the words of its frontwoman Deborah Coughlin, is a lot things: a coven, army, choir, tribe, rock ’n’ roll, sex and death band.

Whatever it is, it contains “a handpicked selection of some of the best women in the world”. It is the anti-choir, hailed by critics as a “burgeoning cult” whose audience revels in its “controlled banshee fare.” Their songs are a cacophonic mêlée of coarse girl power delivered through self-penned mantras on every human condition.

Coughlin told IdeasTap, “We sing about anxiety, war, love, friendship, alcoholism, honour killings, sex, freedom and forgiveness. Gaggle is not trained, it’s not gleeful; it’s not monastic. It‘s beautiful, scary, powerful.” She added of their penchant for Technicolor costume: “Gaggle is not normal life. It’s not H&M or Topshop.” And she’s right – this group is anything but high street.

Brierley-based Bevox is another group that’s given choir-singing a militant twist after song-bombing Yorkshire train stations in a spate of flash-mob carolling this month. But Christmas tunes aren’t typical fare for all radical choristers. Some of them have an altogether more political message.

Paid Not Played is a protest-group-slash-vocal-collective of arts graduates who stand against free labour in the cultural sector. Instead of throwing rocks at policemen, PNP takes a more democratic approach to complaining. Member Sarah Walters told IdeasTap, “For any kind of protest, the vibe is very important. Singing is a really productive way of getting your message across, especially at a time when people seem so angry.”

PNP draws inspiration from Complaints Choir, a network of musical protest groups started by Helsinki-based Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, whose aim is to “transform the huge energy people put into complaining, into something else.”

That energy is something the Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus has in handbags. They describe their style as “tongue-in-cheek”, with a repertoire that includes camp favourites I Am What I Am and Dancing Queen. The group competed in BBC1’s Last Choir Standing in 2008 and since then they’ve featured in Gscene, The Observer and on Radio 1.

Also no stranger to mainstream press is Glasgow choir and festival pets The Parsonage – a self-proclaimed “non-religious, determinedly independent, self-defining organic group” who have performed at T in the Park, Glastonbury, supported Rod Stewart and sung on Echo and the Bunnymen’s 2009 album, The Fountain.

For real traditional values, Belfast-based Open Arts Community Choir is a vocal ensemble with real heart. It’s an inclusive choir, which also appeared on Last Choir Standing and features those with and without disabilities from every section of the community, united by one thing – a love of singing.

It’s a sentiment echoed by London’s first homeless choir, The Choir With No Name who recently supported Coldplay in a number of secret gigs for homeless charity Crisis. For them and the other radical choirs, it’s a well-deserved song of praise.

Watch Gaggle performing at the Women’s Library, below:

The Brilliant and The Dark from Open Music Archive on Vimeo.