Listen to any of Kitsuné’s Maison compilations and it’s hardly surprising to learn that the French record label also operates a clothing brand whose wares are hocked in ‘edgy’ fashion outlets like London’s Dover Street Market or Parisian style temple Colette. Much of the music featured on past Maison comps has served, for better or for worse, as a who’s who of up and coming fashion flavours of the month in the indie, electro and dance spectrum.
Fashion is a fickle beast though. One day you’re in, the next you’re out. It’s all part of the feeding frenzy that fuels the consumer craze and allows fatcats, like Topshop’s Phillip Green, to sit on incredibly large piles of fairly undeserved money. If you’re going to play the fashion game, then what’s on offer has to change at a hyper fast rate or the style junkies start looking elsewhere for their fix.
Having made a name for themselves in the past few years by repeatedly crossing the crumbling indie/dance divide, it looks like the paint is starting to peel off the once gleaming walls of Kitsuné’s electro-house-rock showroom with Maison Compilation 5. The problem is, having once aligned themselves with scene leaders like Klaxons or Simian Mobile Disco, this latest collection continues to mine the exact same, now exhausted vein. So instead of listening to the forerunners, we’re subjected to a wave of less ambitious second-comers and aging could-have-beens with the presence of one-time electro-clash figureheads Fischerspooner or those terminally on the cusp East London scenesters The Cazals.
Still, it’s not all come to a crashing halt. Alan Braxe serves up a filthy slice of post-disco scuzz on ‘Addicted’. The Silverlink vs. Kicks Like A Mule Remix of M.I.A.’s ‘XR2’ takes the ‘new’ out of the equation and transforms the tune into a straight-up old-school rave banger. Friendly Fires even step away from the pop and fully embrace the funk for once with their Jaime Principle/Frankie Knuckles sampling ‘On Board’.
Half good, half bad and almost entirely disposable, Kitsuné’s Maison Compilation 5 has only one certainty going for it: you will hear this pumping through the speakers at your local skinny jeans outlet in the very near future. Happy shopping.

i sold my copy of this
it is really really bad
that Braxe tune is alright and one or two others are bearable but most of it is
is
well..
it's laughable
and you didnt tell them about Bitchee Bitchee Yaa Yaa
which at least knocks Cheeky Cheeky and The Nosebleeds off the Stupidest Bandname Ever pedestal
Agree..
... isn't very good.
I like the David E. Sugar track, that's about it.
It's not at all half bad.
It's nearly all bad, bar the final track; the Vicarious Bliss mix of 'To Cut A Long Story Short' by Cazals, which is okay. But then even the comp's only saving grace is ruined completely by the silly, cut-your-ears-off hidden song at the end.
This review is actually spot on
Nice work
yep
definately not as good as previous ones... didnt really see the point of many of the tracks. the rex the dog is a good tune though.