rating- 10/10
gen. take-
look, sometimes its hard to find music. sometimes music, even the kinds we love, evades us. that's why the kitsuné maison compilations are so special to me. you might be asking- why number three? why not start at number one? are you just a fake kitsuné maison listener? yes. i found this as anyone should, by accident. more on that later. but what should be said is that albums like this are hard to come by. each song is genuinely at least a 9/10, which (even in quote-unquote "older" albums) is very hard to find. theres always a dud. not in here. i see that as a few things. for one, kitsuné maison, or maison kitsuné, depending, self describes as "a beacon for cutting-edge electronica. "
the album itself features bands relatively unknown now: simian mobile disco, boys noize, gossip, and digitalism (to name a few), and that's why it deserves to be highlighted. each and every addition to this compilation furthers, in simple terms, a mood. the mood itself, i cannot place, but i can say definitively that it is cool. isn't that enough? it feels like being in on something underground, even if it isn't. the girl listening to this wears statement peices. she knows curation. she is, by definition: cool. to ease out of a tangent, what i find a drawing factor in this collection, and each kitsuné maison collection, from 1 to 18, is the curated mood. it seems a little trivial: who cares what the mood is? shouldn't there already be one? yes, but they take it further.
kitsuné maison is many things. a music label, a clothing brand and "a lot more." expensive, curated, and sleek. a pair of socks retails for about $40. the thing that makes them special here is the music, ergo, culture side. their ingenius was born from something described as a combination of dj culture and the desire to have something curated under a common theme, by a collection of artists. it wasn't one artist, or under one name, it was a collection. in reality, that's probably what makes it so special. coming from a luxury brand doesn't make it special: it almost detracts from its relateability. sure, to be cool is one thing, but to be almost timeless is another.
an album born on cd compilations and continued throughout 15 further iterations, kitsuné maison collections are always "in."
(read this article if you find any of this interesting! https://www.huckmag.com/article/the-cultural-impact-of-maison-kitsune-compilations i couldnt say it any better :p)
fav song- standing in the way of control (soulwax nite version)-gossip/soulwax
