St. Germain: Boulevard – New Version Label: F Communications
It took me about two house tracks into this CD to realize that this is a re-release of St. Germain’s records made in 1995. Yeah, this was when deep house, acid-jazz, and Latin-y salsa-soul were COOL. Sweet, sexy, simple hooks straight out of the clubs, spiced up w/ St. Germain’s jazzy production sensibilities. This is more of a dance CD than a jazz CD. It makes me totally nostalgic for the good old days of early 90s club music, where you could dance to sexy beats on the main floor, and sit & make out in the upstairs acid-jazz room. Try 1,2,4,6,7
1. DEEP & jazzy house, like the sweet sexy kind of stuff that came out of NYC in the early 90s, very MAW (Masters At Work); great piano throughout
2. Trip-hoppy breaks; swank guitar, lots of loose flute-play, funky groove
3. More jazz than deep house, the sax work is distinctive and loose, over a crispy & snappy 4/4 beat
4. Tribute record – some shout-outs/respects; sexy deep beat and nice sax work
5. A short little dub interlude
6. Slammin’ hip-hop beats, muted trumpet work, nice & funky
7. Salsa-soul, just like the title says; a Latin melody spiced up by trumpet improv
8. I think I might have heard this in a club last week. Vocal house remix of a 1995 dance cut, reinterpreted by producer Todd Edwards. Funky disco, basically.