Electro House Recommendations May 2010

Review: The peerless Kitsune are back with yet another superbly curated collection of songs and artists that all straddle the line between indie and dance so perfectly. One man band Washed Out gets things off to an inspired start with the hauntingly beautiful "Belong", a truly memorable tune that has the vibe and swing of Carly Simon's classic "Why?", but with a deliberate lo-fi roughness and enough echoed vocals to make Panda Bear jealous. Brooklyn's Holy Ghost!, who have been keeping fans on tenterhooks since their first DFA single "Hold On" dropped, deliver "Say My Name" here on Kitsune 9 and we can assure you it was worth the wait. With exclusives such as an Arthur Baker mix of Manchester duo Hurts, as well as other essential new tunes from Monarchy, Logo and Crookers, Kitsune once again prove their cool with this compilation.

Review: Out on his own Cheaper Thrills label, fidget king Herve brings the hard twitchy funk with this second installment of his Ghetto Bass mixes. A perfect bulletin of the best and most hyped tunes of 2010 so far, there's absolutely no filler here and every tune comes thoroughly road tested. Jack Beats' mix of Passion Pit's kicks things off with some serious attitude, backing it up with Max Morrell's mighty mix of The Glamour's Love Burn. For a trademark mix of stuttering bass, hip-hop acapellas and huge build-up's, check out the obscure but incendiary The Sound by Kill Light, a banging tune made even better by some killer drum rolls.



Herve picks out some classy alternate mixes of some recent playlist favourites, such as MJ Cole's standout and thumping mix of L-Vis 1990's already classic United Groove. There's also the Baltimore flavoured Mane Thing remix of the Shalamar-sampling Peep Thong, a hit from last year on Cheap Thrills, as well as Herve's own mix of Steve Aoki's recent In The House, and an exclusive mix of Orbital's Lush. More Herve exclusives include Zombies and Hot! Drum Attack, both of which show a funky tropical influence on the beats with oodles of glitchy bass still present and correct. Douster's mix of Yolanda Be Cool's Afronuts works well alongside these, while a double dose of Joy Orbison ushers in a change of direction into more heavy wobblin' dubstep territory, courtesy of R1 Ryders, High Rankin and Sukh Knight among others. With plenty of bases covered, this is an invaluable collection of some of the most red-hot tunes available today, and should be checked out without delay.