Kitsune - Compilation 7 Album Review

Review of Kitsune Records seventh compilation.

Ze ambassador may throw ze best parties, but those dudes at fashion-chain-sorta-label Kitsune must on this evidence supply all the tunes. You'd be well advised to grab a bunch too, as this seventh collection of their maverick genius serves up another rich platter of glitzy pop and twisted dancefloor madduns.

Where to start? Why, at the very beginning of course, with Irish trio Two Door Cinema Club, who may have overdosed slightly on Vampire Weekend's afrobeat nuances, but who prove on Something Good Can Work that boundless energy and infectious optimism are still the roots of great tunes. Next? well Franco hipsters Phoenix have been long touted as heirs to - well, Air's - place in our collective hearts when it comes to louche, bouffanted pretty boy soft rock, and the slinky Lisztomania reaffirms every perception in spades - as we shout encore.

Care to dance? Elly "La Roux" Jackson thinks you should, and shame on you for even thinking about getting bored of In For The Kill, the LIFELIKE mix sounding so ridiculously eighties it might as well be a Rubik's Cube driving an XR3i. Those hot on nostalgia for an era in which they were still in nappies could also do worse than dive right into The Golden Filter's Favourite Things, whose breathlessly sibilant vocal phrasing should be restricted to an 09 number and subsequently filed under S-E-X.

Where most comps rely on a few killers and are then stuffed with anti-climactic mush to make up the numbers, Maison sept bursts at the seams with crowd pleasing ear candy. Almost too many to cram in to these few 'undred words, folky dork James Yuill delivers his trademark lo-tech grace on This Sweet Love, Chateau Marmont's Beagle reminds you of that epiphany moment when you first heard Daft Punk's Homework for the first time, and MAYBB's Touring in NY sounds a bit like a Speak And Spell that's been rewired by Chromeo. But the centrepiece act is undoubtedly new Manc sensations Delphic, whose ecstatic/anthemic Counterpoint proves they want to party like it's 1989. Ok, so you could just go and download the Paris Angels All on You, but equally the effect can still be understood by thinking Hot Chip if they'd idolised 808 State instead of Sparks.

So, are zey spoiling us? you bet your ass!


Andy Peterson