Passion Pit – “Little Secrets:”

KiD CuDi – “Soundtrack 2 My Life:”

Kitsuné Maison 8, the chic and nice issue
Various Artists
Release date
November 30, 2009
Kitsune

kitsune.fr
myspace.com/maisonkitsune
facebook.com/maisonkitsune
twitter.com/maison_kitsune

Paris, Fr – Here is the eighth Maison compilation from Kitsuné, the chic and nice issue. The Kitsuné house is now packed with friends, girls and boys, new and old. Quiet girls, neurotic boys, Kitsuné mobilizes all that is most passionate and exciting. We won’t list the number of groups and artists discovered on Kitsuné compilations that have since become headliners, we have no time for that.

We always need resources, and pleasure, and brilliant new music that will change the course of the day when you press play. And new encounters. And from then on also the pleasure of nurturing relationships, having the chance to go deeper in them and dig some grooves, to be surprised by those you thought you already knew.

Two Door Cinema Club and Delphic are the latest additions to the Kitsuné family and their respective forthcoming debut albums will be out soon on Kitsuné. Additionally, Heartsrevolution, Slagsmålsklubben, Beni, Chew Lips and Crystal Fighters will all have their tracks out as singles on Kitsuné. It’s all here.

It was a two months listening-marathon of sorts in Kitsuné’s Montmartre offices and everywhere else for that matter. This time it’s even more of a world tour: there’s French singing, Japanese singing. There are Finnish, Swedish, Germans, basically everyone’s invited.

“Kitsuné Maison 8” will be released November 30, 2009 on Kitsuné. Pick it up on iTunes, Amazon, Beatport, eMusic, and other fine digital outlets.

Here is the eighth Maison compilation from Kitsuné, the chic and the nice issue. The Kitsuné house is now packed with friends, girls and boys, new and old. Quiet girls, neurotic boys, Kitsuné mobilizes all that is most passionate and exciting…It will be out November 30, but til then, here is something for you.

All clothes in the video are taken from the new Spring Summer 10 collection: “Kitsuné Golf Club.”

“Kitsuné Maison 8” Tracklisting

1. French Horn Rebellion – “Up All Night”

We recommend their four Euros D.I.Y. video for such a gigantic song.

2. The Drums – “Let’s Go Surfing”

They are handsome, dress up fifties and what’s more play good music.

3. Siriusmo – “High Together”

Sublime and simple. It would make a Cistercian monastery dance. The priests would be allowed to marry if they were listening to this in the Vatican.

4. Le Corps Mince de Françoise – “Something Golden” *

Slender and Finnish. Connected to French writer Françoise Sagan?

5. Midnight Juggernauts – “This New Technology”

Panoramic and ambitious, by the most sought-after producers this month.

6. Heartsrevolution – “Dance Till Dawn” *

The Heartsrevolution couple is back. They’re nuts (we say ‘intense’ to remain polite). They shine of a thousand CRYSTALLIZED™ sparkles. A very 1989 piano for a track that’s already been aired on Gossip Girl for three full minutes.

7. Logo – “Junocide”

Proper aceeeed to incite you to drive faster. Also perfect for a row.

8. Two Door Cinema Club – “I Can Talk (Moulinex Remix)” *

Our favourite from Kitsuné Maison 7 is here again, no wonder the band has now signed to Kitsuné. Their album, to die for, will be out shortly. How will these very shy boys deal with the hordes of female fans that will soon land on their doorstep? A song about silence and the unexplainable.

9. Slagsmålsklubben – “Brutal Weapons” *

We first talked to the Slagsmålsklubben boys in a festival in Finland surrounded by whales. Then in the office it was competition time to see who could say the band’s name the fastest: Slagsmålsklubben, Slagsmålsklubben, Slagsmålsklubben! A track that’s like a grand domino chain-reaction.

10. Beni – Maximus “(Harvard Bass Remix)”*

Awesome track! Maximus, minimus, very Keith Haring. The video created so much on-line hysteria that we had to stop the comments.

11. AMWE – “Friction Between The Lovers”

Very inflamed. Amwe is Japanese and a long way from being 6 feet tall, still she wears size 9 Air Jordan collectors. She’s fierce.

12. Jolie Cherie – “Star”

For once that a band with a French name is actually French and not three Japanese girls with pink hair. This track is the kind of stuff cute Parisian girls who think Kate Moss and go to La Durée listen to.

13. Chew Lips – “Salt Air (Alex Kapranos Remix)” *

A song about America. They met in a restaurant and Alex Kapranos agreed to do a remix.

14. Delphic – “This Momentary” *

Believe the hype. Delphic are enormous. Well, they will be enormous. And will remain enormous. We should make a movie, just to place that track in.

15. Memory Tapes – “Bicycle”

Another Technicolor track that includes a choir and smells good homemade cooking. So Anglo-Saxon it hurts.

16. Parallels – “Find the Fire”

Kate Bush 2010. The song that the American director John Hughes would have used if he didn’t pass away this summer. Special mention to broken-hearted sixteen-year old girls.

17. Nottee – “Control”

A girl who’s looking for truth and wants to walk straight. So rare. Totally crazy. Another Kitsuné finding.

18. ENCORE

19. Crystal Fighters – “I Love London” *

A future Kitsuné release, for raving mad London queens. And for you too.

20. My Tiger My Timing – “I Am The Sound”

The band (some friends, a brother and sister) is already scouring the venues of Leeds, Bristol and Manchester. The song promises: I’m not trying to chat you up, it’s just we’re going in the same direction and I’m going home. Perfect.

* Single to be released on Kitsuné in the current year

Features collaborations with folk legend Donovan, David Bartholomé, Lisa Kekaula, Yael Naim, Lily Frost and cover art from famous French comic artists Dupuy & Berberian

Variety Lab
Team Up!
Release date: December 15, 2009
Peermusic / Digital Pressure
variety-lab.com
myspace.com/varietylab

How did this project come together?

“Soda Pop Confusion” (feat kidsaredead):

Download.

This is a diverse and super funky mix of tropicalia, electro, acid jazz and bubblegum pop with a surprise at every turn. From the vocodered disco-rock of Let’s Boogie to the sun-drenched acoustica of Mireia there isn’t a moment here that doesn’t ooze laid-back Mediterranean cool.

- Clash Magazine

Spanning multiple genres and featuring collaborations from some of the most inspiring artists in the world, Variety Lab’s sophomore album Team Up! is set up to be the most wonderful musical surprise of 2009. From the original blueprints through to the execution it’s a grand slam. Collaborations with folk legend Donovan, David Bartholomé, Lisa Kekaula, Yael Naim and Lily Frost creates a broad musical spectrum while French comic artists Dupuy & Berberian bring Variety Lab’s vision to life.

Variety Lab is the alias of one Thierry Bellia. His first CD – 2003’s Providence – gained notoriety for its lead single “London In The Rain,” which was, at the time, included in every single lounge compilation. As in the past Bellia, alone, put Team Up! together, but he did not forget to emphasize his friends’ assistance in the process. Let’s just name his henchmen from the French band Orwell (Jérôme Didelot and Alexandre Longo, aka Cascadeur and winner of the 2008 Inrockuptibles CQFD prize). Making use of his friends, instruments, machines and other weird objects (for instance the Optigan, a toy devised back in the 70’s), Thierry has worked non-stop on this project.

As for the biggest collaboration, after months of swapping tapes across the channel with Bellia, folk legend Donovan himself flew across to Paris to offer his voice and his experience to the spacious and bouncy opening track, “Is This The Last Time.” “I was delighted to be asked to join Variety Lab on their project. I flew into Paris to record. I helped to re-work the song and had great fun with the band. It’s a cool track and I am pleased to present this first single with Variety Lab. It’s a funny lyric and I brought out the humor with one of my quirky accents that I use when I take on the character in a song. It’s a perfect new pop record to dance and meet a new friend or lover,” Donovan says.

On three other tracks, “We Should Be Dancing” (the video has now been viewed over 125,000 time on YouTube), “Mireia” and the very rocky “Not Enough,” it is David Bartholomé, the lead-singer with the excellent Belgian band Sharko, who grabs the mike. And then the fantastic and frantic Bellrays’ vocalist, Lisa Kekaula, with her husky and roaring voice who sings on “Let’s Boogie,” a groovy and vocodered track that oozes sheer rock and soul energy from Detroit. The youngster Vincent Mougel from Kidsaredead comes in next to blow some sugary foam on the sweet candy that is “Soda Pop Confusion,” while Thierry’s fellow Nancy-born Mona Soyoc naturally joins the project as a next-door neighbor, and adds some sensuality to the very eighties “Money,” a cover version of the track by late 70s-early 80s English band The Flying Lizards, who had themselves borrowed it from the soul crooner Barrett Strong. Next, Canadian songstress Lily Frost croons over the lush, crackly ballad “This Parade” before 2008 pop sensation Yael Naim closes the album with her version of “Love Is A Bird;” originally a Variety Lab demo that has gradually evolved, first in the expert hands of Cascadeur, then by David Bartholomé on a Sharko album. “Love Is A Bird”, a simple, and beautiful idea, that leads us strolling from one end of Team up! to the other, filled with a feeling that can be summed up as the more, the stronger, the prettier and the merrier.

Team up! is more than a mere album – Much more. It is like awaking from a soft dream.

Variety Lab
“Team Up!”

Tracklisting

01 – “Is This The Last Time?” (feat. Donovan)
02 – “Money (That’s what I Want)” (feat. Mona Soyoc)
03 – “Which way to go (Reprisa)”
04 – “We Should Be Dancing” (feat. David Bartholome)
05 – “Soda Pop Confusion” (feat. Kidsaredead)
06 – “This Parade” (feat. Lily Frost)
07 – “Hola Mireia”
08 – “Which Way To Go”
09 – “Mireia” (feat. David Bartholome)
10 – “Let’s Boogie” (feat. Lisa Kekaula)
11 – “Not Enough” (feat. David Bartholome)
12 – “Love Is A Bird” (feat. Yael Naim)

Download “Coquette” now:

Phoenix – “Lasso:”

Lazerbitch: “Coquette:”

Mad Max:

When we got to the show we were bummed about the fact that Letron‘s set was just ending, but the last few minutes of it that we saw were pretty great. It’s too bad that we didn’t get to see more of Letron other than some brief dancing and to notice that she was wearing a Laker’s jersey (the LA Laker’s played in an NBA finals game on the night of the show). But hey, there’s always next time, right? Letron’s sound was vibrant and playful yet had some fairly raw beats. In case you’re wondering, raw beats are a good thing. Ah, the sweet contrasts in life always tend to have an appeal to human nature. Since we couldn’t get any photos of Letron from the show, here are a couple from her Myspace page. What do you know? She has performed with Machinedrum and Addiquit!

Letron:

Letron, Addiquit and Machinedrum:

We did, however, manage to see all of Jonathan Denmark‘s set, which did anything but disappoint. In fact, Jonathan Denmark put on an excellent show that far exceeded expectations. We weren’t really sure what to expect actually since we hadn’t seen Denmark live at all, but if you live in the LA area–or wherever Denmark happens to be touring–you should go out and show love for sure. His performance was animated, peppered with little sarcastic and funny comments in between songs, and just well-done overall. We were kept totally engaged the entire time.

Also of note, Benji Kay of the band LOVE is a STORY made an appearance and performed with Denmark for one song, which was awesome because Kay had a real-time autotune effect on his voice. Hey, yes, it’s very T-Pain, which Denmark and Kay stated outright. However, for as much as people like to make fun of T-Pain and make a big joke about autotuning, we secretly love it. Except when Cher used it in her track “Believe:” weren’t feeling that so much, although the song was catchy. Cher’s “Believe,” had a nice message and was catchy and all, but it was always definitely bad if you were unfortunate enough to get it stuck in your head.  You know what’s funny though? That song came out in 1998, and it predates the whole autotuner craze by virtue of the simple fact that it’s 11 years old! Okay, so you might be thinking, “Hey, but Daft Punk had autotuner on their early famous track ‘Around the World,’ (1996)” but that autotuning definitely sounds far more robotic and less subtle than what we hear today. By the way, some of the people behind Vimeo.com made a hilarious video about autotuning in the office a few months back.

Check out LOVE is a STORY in iTunes by clicking on the image below:

The venue was interesting as well, tucked in a courtyard behind stores like Urban Outfitters with an open sky that gave the area a spacious feel. Plus free Izze Sparkling Juice beverages. That was a nice little touch. All things sparkling are good.

We recorded some video of the show, but unfortunately forgot to bring a real camera: so, all that you get is some iPhone 3g video of the show. The video is surprisingly decent though, considering it was recorded on a phone with nothing to stabilize the image but hands and nothing but a speakerphone mic to pick up the sound. Maybe the iPhone 3g S will be better with video. It’s scheduled for release in less than a week on June 19, 2009 (be excited, you know you are).

Denmark sounded great at the show. The instrumentals and sound system were also spectacular at the venue. Any distortion you hear wasn’t caused by the system but the iPhone speakerphone mic and its inability to handle the truth.

Another thing that turned out really well at the show is the photos that we managed to get our hands on from Photojournalist Jim Stevenson. So, you can actually get to see some clear, aesthetic stills of the event! Stevenson has work published in The Huffington Post and we’re glad that we got the opportunity to connect with him both before and at the show. We also appreciate Stevenson’s permission to use a few of the photos here on the site (all photos with the Hipsterwave logo stamp were taken by Stevenson).