Kitsuné Maison 12

Be honest, it’s difficult to muster much enthusiasm for the twelfth instalment of Kitsune’s ongoing compilation series. It’s difficult in a way that mustering enthusiasm for the autonomic nervous system is. It does what it does, never registering on a conscious level because it never changes its essential reason for existing. It hums along, involuntarily, imperceptibly. Like Kitsune 12: The Good Fun Issue, it’s just, well, there.

Like every other entry in the French label’s series, we’re offered a collection of lower tier, synth-augmented indie, that lost traction somewhere in the last decade, before Twitter, the global financial meltdown, and when guitars in dance music were still a ‘thing.’ Opener sees London trio Citizens! - featuring members of indie never-quites Official Secrets Act and ably produced by Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos - phone in a serviceable piece of pop ephemera. ‘True Romance’ is fey, dramatic, but ultimately dated, sidling up to the notion of a glam drama before watching it slip home with an alpha-male.

It’s an inauspicious start which is rarely improved upon. Australians New Navy strive for the tropical jangle of Friendly Fires on ‘Zimbabwe’, but, despite the humid percussive breakdown, end up with little more than a patchy tan. Computer Magic, an artist who has proved herself adept at multilayered, betamax pop with her online releases, offers the limp, Ladytron-apeing ‘Ex-Believer,’ the sonic equivalent of a middle distance stare.

Indeed, the most successful tracks on Kitsune 12 are much more straightforward dancefloor tracks. Juveniles ‘We’re Young’ plays out like a medicated Whitest Boy Alive over a space disco beat, all interstellar synth clusters imploding like dying stars. Russian retro-obsessives Tesla Boy tap create the kind of moneyed disco pop that demands to be played over a teak embellished sound system, hell even Lady Gaga producer White Shadow injects some austerity, some kick and flare, with the brisk techno of ‘Let’s Work.’ Still, it’s not enough to silence the mantra of Kitsune that seems to hum throughout the release. “If it isn’t broke...” seems to be the pervading theme here. The real rejoinder to that question being, in this instance, why bother?