Specialising in sideburn-sporting albums that evoke the reek of vintage, mouldy studios, Belgian label Freaksville is back on the road with « En route », a compilation featuring a 100% synthetic sound, with one beady eye focused straight ahead on the best of the francophone electropop scene. Unbuckle your seat belts and hold tight ! Following hot on the heels of their first unashamedly rock compilation (Pan Vol. 1, 2010), this second offering transports the listener on a musical voyage which rides a solitary groove, like some dreamed up FM radio playlist to accompany lonely lovers to digital paradise. Chosen by audition from Paris and beyond, this batch of artists are for the most part already signed up to labels, so they know how to rev their engines. Our road trip on this compilation starts off with a member of Telex (Michel Moers) colliding with a Phantom Conductor resulting in a new take on Suicide with an added oil change. Passing by the moon we glimpse out of the window for some French retro-futurist pop, a dizzy mix of Dondolo and Kraftwerk. Then it’s the turn of Accident, a whizz-kids keyboard duo who join the fast lane with « Vert Bleu Noir » an ode to the 80s but without the shoulder pads. Now that we’re at full speed on the autobahn, we encounter more weird and wonderful faces. The spirit of John Carpenter permeates The Game is Over by the mysterious TSTR and the remix of Phantom feat. Lio by duo Destin evokes an era of Malibu cocktails, crisps and a spinning disco ball, while Orion by Livio Mosca is like a James Dean piloted porsche on a distant planet. If few of these artists on this Freaksville compilation are destined for a future of high-rotation on MTV – we can only but dream – .- then they’ve nothing to lose by driving recklessly in the fast lane – and screw the speed cameras. One year after the release of the « Parisien » compilation by Kitsuné « En Route » is proof that France is far from done with synthesizers, certainly not with the bizarre side. We can also cite Kozushima by the group Planète or the remix of Deadride Phantom, which closes this electronic odyssey but hey what’s the attraction ? Well, on Route 666, the Hell’s Angels 2.0 have simply replaced their communion hosts with chips and their journey has been modernised. Promised to a long line of collectors, these musicians of the future have traded in major bodywork – guitars, groupies – for frail synthetic vehicles – a keyboard, beatbox – and are about to set off on the tarmac in a sidecar. Are they men or machines in a rut ? Its of little importance as this is a journey guaranteed not to waver and just as visionary as crossing National 7 in a spaceship. Watch out UFOs….