- Selected by club resident Lorent Air and mixed by German duo Monosurround, the tracks on Villa Rouge Volume 5 are an apposite mixture of old and new, of obscure cuts and well-known moments with a bunch of Citizen exclusives thrown in for good measure. Sure, opening with the Thin White Duke remix of Felix Da Housecat's "Silver Screen Shower Scene" might be a bit too retrograde for some, but considering it's still Stuart Price, Miss Kittin, and Felix's best work, you can easily fall all over again for its string-fueled epic grandeur. It's a feeling echoed throughout, in fact, by cuts inspired by nü-trance moods from Kaliber, Maxime Dangles, the expansive Popof remix of Veerrus & Max Devine's "0 Zibaldone," and Matzak: you wouldn't head-bang to any of those, but you shouldn't hold it against them either.
Being Vitalic's label, it'd impossible not to have some harsher moments, though, and it's in its second half that the mix finally switches into third gear. Arnaud Rebotini, for instance, offers a Black Strobe instrumental remix—sans Ivan Smagghe, but you couldn't tell the difference, really—of The Penelopes' slightly demonic "Demian," while France's own wonderboy Surkin goes for hand-in-the-air, euphoric rave-y madness with "White Knight Two" (probably Institubes' best moment in '08 so far). Only Durchblick's Kraftwerkian tonal bleeps sound too cute and a bit out of place at first, but "Hör Auf Damit"'s grainy and distorted bass line ends up feeling right at home next to Citizen regulars and Vitalic-wannabes such as John Lord Fonda and Sad Mafioso.
So far, it seems the maximalist scene in France has been rotating around a Parisian axis, with attention strictly dedicated to Kitsuné, Ed Banger, and Institubes. Such short-sighted appraisals, though, ignore the fact that Citizen, Dijon-based for those playing at home, has also been a major force in terms of releasing brutal, abrasive, and compelling techno cuts that have helped rejuvenate the French electronic scene just as much as their capital city brethren.
In the end, Villa Rouge Volume 5 is more of the same in this underrated series. It's a compilation that feels both diverse and au goût du jour enough to keep you interested for at least this summer, and maybe a bit beyond. And, hopefully, it should make you want to give the Citizen's catalogue some much-deserved attention or, at the very least, become an unlikely citizen of Montpellier clubbing scene.
Tracklist01. CTZ Crew - Intro
02. Felix Da Housecat - Silver Screen Shower Scene (Thin White Duke Mix)
03. Alex Millan & Lorent Air - Ironik
04. Something A La Mode - G-String
05. Jurgen Paape & Boy Schaufler - We Love
06. Kaliber - Kaliber16 B1
07. Dusty Kid - Kore
08. Maximes Dangles - Plane (Live Version)
09. Veerus & Max Devine - O Zibaldone (Popof Remix)
10. Schneider, Galluzzi - Albertino
11. Jan Driver - Trains (Danton Eeprom Remix)
12. Matzak - Madness
13. Durchblick - Hur Auf Damit
14. John Lord Fonda - Brunette Tatoo
15. The Penelopes - Demian (Blackstrobe Instrumental Remix)
16. Surkin - White Knight Two
17. Sad Mafioso - The Lamb
18. Fuckkk Offf - Bloodfuck
19. Monosuround - Clocked, Locked, Ready to Rock (Summerized Original)