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'Kitsune Maison 7'

Released on 1 June 2009 on Kitsune

Excellent music comes in many different forms, but for the purposes of taste-makers extraordinaire Kitsune, one suspects that there are really only two kinds: the stuff that will get you dancing, and the stuff which won’t. The former is what populates their excellent series of Maison compilations, the latter doesn’t. And such binary analogies are also helpful in this case because we are principally dealing with electronically influenced pop music.

This is Volume 7 of the Maison series, subtitled “The lucky one”, picking up from where 1-6 left off by showcasing what the guys at Kitsune think are the hottest new acts right now. For the uninitiated, it may be easy to be put off by the hyperbole in the music press, suggesting Kitsune is cooler than liquid nitrogen, but the good news is that to-date the Maison compilations have walked the walk every bit as well as others talked the talk about them. Thankfully Volume 7 is no exception. Anyone with an open mind and even the vaguest predilection towards rhythm will find lots to enjoy here, with the picks of the bunch being the tracks from La Roux, Maybb and Le Tigre frontwoman JD Samson’s new project MEN.

La Roux and MEN don’t differ remarkably from the rest of the tracks on Maison Vol.7, they stand out mainly because the vocals offer a character which is more suited to listening at home, whereas much  of the compilation suggests that it would sound best in the confines of a club somewhere. The highlight of the record, `Touring in NY` by Maybb, smashes through such considerations altogether though.

`Touring in NY` exhibits a superb appreciation of how to make a piece of dance music with a huge impact.  The even build up in the verse breaks into a pulsating sequence of escalating synths, before dropping back into another build-up without losing any momentum. On paper it may seem like a lazy comparison, but on the strength of this track Maybb sounds ready to follow in the footsteps of fellow great Fench dance acts Justice and Daft Punk. Maison Volume 7 will surely add to Kitsune’s already sterling rep for sourcing great electronic music.

Posted on 1 June 2009 by Bob Ferguson

Tags: Kitsune Maison 7  Various  Compilation  French  Electro House  Album Review 

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