French Revolution: The House Of Kitsune

“I wanted it to feel like a label of my house”

The Kitsune Music label started from this simple notion. This would be an artist friendly label selling only the best in electronic and rock club music to a public needing some guidance. The man behind this label should know a thing or two about electronica and being popular, as he moonlights as one half of Daft Punks management (with Pedro Winter, head of the, self proclaimed, more underground Ed Banger label). Gildas Loaec is the driving force behind this uber-cool off shoot of Kitsune Fashion label, he is not your typical head of a cool record label either and he kindly crossed the language barrier (he is self admittedly not great at English) to give Gigwise his heavily French accented story of this most current of labels.

Kitsune Music came into being in 2002, a place for Gildas to, in his own words, “where I will be able to work with music we like”. Kitsune though was not going to be a place for musical snobbery, it would have a more populist leaning, “I like the idea of pop, I like the idea of club music and music that can touch a lot of people.” So with this mantra in mind, he set about creating not only a label at the forefront of musical revolutions but also one accessible to people not really into this type of music, “Club music that you can also listen to at home, club music but also music with melodies and songs”. The label began by releasing compilations, Kitsune Night and Kitsune Love, amongst the early releases, the idea was to build a foundation and rapport, “so we were starting with composition, we were asking artists we like”. They built a portfolio of artists and developed a persona, “then we were starting to do more work on building a catalogue on Kitsune and work with exclusively to artists”

The building of the label continued with the compilation, Kitsune Maison (roughly translated as The House Of Kitsune). The Maison series would allow the label to showcase upcoming talent and their own artists. This compilation would not only do just that but it would provide a springboard for bands to break into public consciousness, Klaxons, Simian Mobile Disco, Hot Chip, The Gossip, Digitalism and many more just on the cusp have featured throughout the series. Kitsune Maison, like the label, is again conceived on pure simplicity. “The idea of Kitsune Maison is about like club music, so to really bring club music to home”. The idea of presenting club music to people is nothing new but the methods used are somewhat less familiar.

First of all is track listing. Gildas and Kitsune, rather cunningly, run the songs like one long club song, “We want to kind of sort out a way of getting to it, to presenting it well and having like a slow process of getting there”. The opening tracks would be slower before building throughout until it finishes with a slow beat. The tracks are handpicked by Gildas, “I am involved in finding tracks myself. I’m working every day, working, finding the good thing”.

Secondly, the compilation would be a shrewd mix of some bigger, guitar based bands (Bloc Party, Wolfmother) or established dance acts (Simian Mobile Disco, Klaxons, Hot Chip). “So when we put on some big names when they get into a store, they are like, oh yeah this name I buy today”, and the cream of underground electronica to keep the muso’s happy, “and some more music that people can pay attention to, for more curious people”. The Maison series would prove very successful, now running into its fourth title and the UK is not only providing a good cross section of the bands involved. The series is continually selling well over here. “I think in the UK we can make more and more follow up. We are getting more and more people buying the CD in the UK”.  As with any success cynics would no doubt have to make an appearance.

“If some people don’t like then they can go and listen to another music, they can start their own label with underground music and then they are not selling and then they will close”