Various Artists - 'Kitsune Maison 3' (Kitsune) Released 27/11/06

Like that of Mark Twain, the death of dance music, it now transpires, has been greatly exaggerated. Shit superclubs may be lying six feet under, but electro and punk funk – or even new rave, if meaningless media monikers flick your switch – is not just alive but performing demented aerobic exercise routines around the hippest dancefloors in the land, as if to demonstrate its rude state of health.

Featuring Gossip remixed by Soulwax, Klaxons reworked by Van She and Dead Disco as re-interpreted by Metronomy, this latest offering from the uber-cool Kitsune label is a celebration of the mildly incestuous scene, and the whole thing comes across like a Hoxtonite wet dream. Hardly surprising, then, that it’s a little absurd at times – duo Fox ‘n’ Wolf, for instance, apparently “really think they are animals” and hence sniff each others’ genitals before every live performance to add “sexual je ne sais quoi”.

And yet, and yet… It’s also somehow rather wonderful. True, some tunes aren’t up to mellow home listening, but that was never the intention: and, played loud, the standout tracks would surely fill any dancefloor in the land.  To these ears, such highlights include Simian Mobile Disco’s 'I Believe' and Done With You' by The Whitest Boy Alive, which bookend the album, as well as the offerings from Oh No! Oh My!, Klaxons and the aforementioned Fox ‘n’ Wolf.

Even the ridiculous, knowingly vacuous chorus of 'Galactic Lover' by the World Domination – namely, “yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah” – does kind of work. They may not be troubling Leonard Cohen on the lyrics front, but then neither could the Prince of Darkness ever boast a bassline like that.

Overall, then, our Parisian friends have produced another Maison compilation that lives up to the high standards of volumes one and two, in the process taking the Kitsune label one step further towards the iconic status it surely deserves. Obviously the mulleted ones will be tripping over their winkle-pickers in their haste to prove they knew all these tunes, like, yeeeeears ago, but for us mere mortals, it’s simply a quality, eminently credible party record that’s actually… shock horror… fun.