Various

Finally, trendy French bistros will have somewhere to turn to for young patrons that want some electronica with their old world charm. Here is a collection of 12 songs by popular electronic artists, all featuring the accordion (or the "asthmatic worm," as it was fondly called in the 19th century). Styles vary from charming old chansons, like Helmut Herler's "Sans Toi" and "Verbluten," by Wechsel Garland, to odd experimental samplings from Pole. Markus Nikolai's "Would Grandpa like it?" is one of the oddest contributions, opening with simple expand/contract sounds - like something you might be subjected to in an accordion showroom - and shifting into a bizarre percussion experiment soaked in monotonous accordion... riffs? Jeremy Tamborello offers an accordion-based electro-pop song with gentle indie rocker-style vocals, while Matthew Herbert contributes something that wouldn't be out of place in the Café del Mar series and Gonzales closes with a brief, sombre accordion/organ ditty. Altogether, it's the perfect dinner music and is sure to prompt conversation as much as pleasant toe tapping. The label also promises lush, book-like packaging by Herzog-Idex, the German bookbinders responsible for Ghostly Record's handsome Disco Nouveau.