Electro House Recommendations November 2012

Review: Paris's Kitsune label, a happy home for hipster-friendly electro, synth-pop and indie-dance, this year celebrates 10 years in the game. To mark the occasion, they've put together a special edition of the Kitsune Maison compilation series. It's a celebration of what has made Kitsune so popular; a range of fun, synth-heavy tracks from little known, up and coming acts. As usual, highlights are plentiful, from the delightful modern electrofunk vibes of Lorenz Rhode's "Any Kind of Pressure" (featuring a great vocal from Jamie Lidell) and Balearic synth-pop sunshine of Peter & The Magician, to the dewy-eyed goodness of Monde Ideal. Served up on heavyweight vinyl gatefold 2xLP!

Review: Erol Alkan adds to his pitch for busiest man of 2012, mixing a very much on-point selection for the I Love Techno compilation series affiliated with the Ghent based festival of the same name. Whilst a worrying precedent was set when the likes of cake throwing stadium DJ Steve Aoki and the Italian duo Crookers have previously been involved, the Phantasy Sound boss's 20 track selection shows a balanced range of what people consider to be techno in this day and age. Alongside names commonly associated with an Alkan DJ set such as Daniel Avery, Gesaffelstein, Duke Dumont, Para One and John Dahlback there's a surfeit of pleasant inclusions with the L.I.E.S. powerhouse duo Bad News featuring along with Blawan, DJs Pareja, Chicago Skyways and James T Cotton. Amid this there are several of Alkan's own joint productions with Boys Noize as well as the Bok Bok remix of the Alkan & Switch collaboration A Sydney Jook.

Review: We got a repress of this gem this year thanks to the lovely people at PIAS, a body-pumping amalgamation of synth-pop and electroid deluge. There's plenty or tracks here, but the standouts are definitely "Alice Practice", a cross between Boys Noize and some deranged industrial outfit form the 80s; "Air War" a glitchy, technoid thumper; "1991" their most concrete electro piece and "Black Panther", one of the most moving soundscapesque pieces we know.