Electrolounge: New Music For Delicate Ears is a first offering in this new series from French label and distributor Wagram. Responsible for the artistic production, development and publishing of successful French artists like Corneille, Gage and Pauline Croze among others, and the distribution of independent labels such as Because Music, George V and Menace Records, the Wagram crew obviously have some muscle to clout.

New German talent, Superpitcher AKA Aksel Schaufler, who recently paired with Michael Mayer on the Supermayer project, opens the compilation with the catchy, yet melancholy vocal number People. The evocative chorus line “…we don’t need no people to be alone…” is married with emotional flute melodies and a solid electro house and acid synth bass line, and rounds out with nice fluctuations and breakdown. Fellow Germans Marbert Rocel, a trio matching DJ/producers Marcel Aue, Robert Krause and vocalist Antje Seifarth, give Herbert’s trademark click house and Classic Records’ boompty forerunner Bushes a run for their money. Featuring warm female vocals with sweet and sunny synth melodies, Marbet Rochel’s Beats Like Birds serves some finely tuned jazz inspired electro house to contrast the melancholy of the opener.

Taking things up a notch, Etienne Daho’s 1982 hit Le Grand Sommeil, a sexy French-spoken vocal disco house style number that would be right at home in a 70s or 80s gay club! Daho is a French singer, songwriter and record producer who has released a number of synth-driven and rock-surf influenced pop hit singles since 1981. He has worked with the likes of Air, Marianne Faithfull and been remixed among others by Fischerspooner, Amon Tobin and William Orbit. If you can surrender yourself to a bit of cheesy retro from time to time, this song is quite a laugh (albeit sans translation).

Album highlight Made Up by Swiss talent Zwicker AKA Cyril Boehler changes the vibe again, this time catchy vocal electro-house beats are paired with an attitude laced female disco rap courtesy of Olivera Stanimirov. Synth filters give a psychedelic effect while vocoder/robotic effects leave the vocalist almost sounding like Robin. Even some fun sing-along lines like (my favourites) “…made a world being beautiful…. made a move did some faking… did some fake ass shaking”. You can see this track being right at home on dance-floors with girls screaming out the line as they boogie along.

Getting deeper in trademark style, is 20:20 Vision’s 10 minute epic re-rub of Blaze’s Lovelee Dae. Most notably of the track My Beat, this time Blaze’s work gets the hypnotic tech house treatment, with filtered vocal loops, a boompty beat and stomach tingling dreamy breakdown or as the track puts it “burning shivers”. Losoul’s remix of Say Goodbye by Khan featuring Julie Cruise leaves her sounding very different from her 90s hit and Twin Peaks theme tune Falling. Singing further down her register, Cruise’s vocal creates a slice of touching melancholy techno cabaret with the haunting lyrics “…nothing’s left, just whisperings of pain…” backed by bouncing techno beats.

Germany’s Headphonism AKA Tim Bernhardt/Lorenzomusic brings a touch of Detroit with String It Back, featuring the predictable, but no less enjoyable deep tech house sounds with spacey techno stabs, galactic rising synth pads and soulful vocals. Danish DJ and electronic music maker Trentemoller who has been getting a lot of support courtesy of our local youth broadcaster Triple J of late, appears here with 25 Timer. After a meandering start, it’s no wonder this track comes in at 8 minutes. Deep, minimal, stripped back, with space synth pads, minimal percussion and a tasty bass-line, when it eventually kicks in, 25 Timer cements where the techno and electro sound has been grounded over the last few years.

Burgeoning UK techno duo Swayzak AKA David “Brun” Brown and James “Darkfarmer” Taylor, flip a melancholy electro house dub love triangle, about a girl trying to convince her boyfriend to commit. Make Up Your Mind, part beat poet, part electro dub, is an entertaining piece of storytelling, paired with hip-moving beats. Finally, Icelandic trio Gus Gus present Need In Me, a single first released in 2005 and re-released with remixes in 06 and 07. Sounding like the dub mix, with most of the vocal taken out, Trick & Kubric’s Bright Remix is vocal electro house meets early ‘90s rave and acid house, which is seeing a bit of a resurgence of late, and seems like a perfect vibe to finish on.

That’s just 10 of the 30 tracks on this double mixed compilation, if this is anything to go by, then the next installment will be much anticipated. It is fun, catchy and eclectic, soft contrasts against glitch, jazz and house, so you can’t really go wrong with this compilation.