In the words of Loïc Prigent et Gildas Loaec, Kitsune, Paris :Attention Comrades Total eclipse Breakfast at Krishna’s Halley’s Comet It’s raining frogs Gardens of Babylon in full bloom Gold-plated tortoises Young maidens in togas and tiaras Spaceship Antelope races Eunnuchs playing lyra Moon Here comes again a new edition of Kitsuné Maison. Kitsuné Maison 4. And once more, here are unpublished gems, rarities, exclusives – and even stars.Kitsuné Maison keeps selecting the best among musical insurgents, ignoring continents and currents.Lost in Myspace ? Anxious in department stores ? Thirsty for new blood ? Once again, Kitsuné Maison 4 will be your dowsing rod, uncovering an unexpected musical collage to listen to in a car, in a club or with earphones – but always very loud. Darkel switch on the light in Kitsuné’s Maison 4 with a first number taken from Jean-Benoît « Air » Dunckel’s debut solo album. Sweet, dreamy and romantic – savour it, because Maison 4 is not always sweet, dreamy and romantic.
The Whip is not music for scientologists and that’s good. Since their first appearance on Kitsuné Maison 3, the boys from The Whip haven’t slept much in their Manchester home (oh, the joys of intensive touring), but here they are again. We love The Whip.Feist and Kitsuné had lots of friends in common, so here is Feist in the Kitsuné Maison with a number to listen to in a car while driving by the beach on a cold Sunday (or a very hot Tuesday, which is about the same). The remix is made by Boys Noize, who have been on all Kitsuné’s compilations (makes sense : he’s one of the best German producers). Foals sound like fleas playing rock’n’roll on old demented keyboards. We got the demo at rue Thérèse in Paris, the Kitsuné HQ, we barely had heard it that we could not belive our ears and contacted them and here they are. They are young ; they are five. We saw them onstage (a marathon, lots of sweating), they hold their guitars quite high, they are relentless and you don’t get bored after the third song, which doesn’t happen very often. They come from Brighton (nobody’s perfect). Their hairstylists are very radical. The piece is whacky. Go see them live.
Hadouken ! is a zillion dollars band. Music for the young, kings of dayglo, already knighted by Mike Skinner from The Street. They have 40,000 friends on Myspace (and soon sixty times more), they are barely twenty, all the British music-biz aficionados are after them, their mothers still live in Leeds, but they’re already up there in the stratosphere. Their number is like the fiftieth level of Street Fighter.
Passions are a young variable-geometry band born from the Berlin techno scene and arty Brooklyn scene. These young people were quite influenced by the sparkling and naive house just before it turned into hardcore molasses. Tested on dancefloors, this is a weapon and a living ad for the most radical antiperspirants.
Riot In Belgium, is an Australian guy, Benny (his brother is Dangerous Dan from Ksubi, the famous clothing brand from the other side of the world). He’s here remixed by Adam Sky our spiritual godfather. When we asked him for his picture, he sent his butts with sunglasses on. This is the kind of music you can have good memories attached to – provided you’re still mentally fifteen.
Dragonette ? Here are Canadians remixed by Australians, Midnight Juggernauts. This piece is perfect for relaxing and is a pleasure to listen to again and again. The kind of music that becomes a worldwide #1 before you know it. She comes from female rock (« tampon’s music » in her own words) and he from experimental drum’n’bass, not necessarily to genres we would love – but together, it’s a bomb.
Guns N’ Bombs are Johnny Love’s band (Johnny Love : the best name since Donna Summer), who posts online quite extreme pictures of him. The band is both funny and disturbing – which is too rare to let it pass. On the dancefloor, this enormous thing becomes huge. As they say on stickers : « Watch out : new talent ».
Punks Jump Up fall into the beautiful and rare category of bands whose singer’s name we can’t tell you because his ban dis too famous and it would confuse things and his official label manager would get so mad he’d tear up his latest copy of House&Garden. The number is irresistible, even if you forget about this secret pedigree.
Thieves Like Us are a Swedish band exiled in Berlin, then in New York. The piece, Drugs in My Body is a tribute – and that’s no lie – to Christiane F. Do you remember Christiane F, who was young and had very bad food-habits ? Let’s just mention here altered states and their very fascinating names : Pontus, Bjorn et Andy.
It is now 20:17 in Kitsuné’s offices in Paris rue Thérèse, and at that very moment, yes, right now, quick, Crystal Castles is the most most most whatever band in the world with their way of articulating as if they devoured children while singing. They come from Toronto. On their Myspace, under “influences”, they answer : murder, glazed-looked girls, knives. Whacky.
Whitey is a mysterious young man. Hence a mysterious number, which is equally consistent. He should be proud, for the piece sounds like a lot of known things, only better. Kitsuné would love to produce his album, whereas we haven’t ever seen him nor talked to him.
Kitsuné are pursuing their fashion business with real man and woman collections and collaborations, such as with shoemaker Pierre Hardy. But Kitsuné are still and more than ever into music, since they represent, ditribute and even produce bands. »Kitsune Maison