(Wagram/Creative Vibes)

Over the past six years or so Parisian Stephane Pompougnac has been serving up his ‘Hotel Costes’ compilations that have been inspirede by his DJ sets at the Parisian glamour spot.. These compilations have come to redefine what we all have come to expect from lounge-music style mixes with their distinctive elegance and style. Seven installments have already passed and it is testament to Pompougnac’s ability as both a DJ and producer that the momentum in quality has been maintained throughout each release.

There is an underlying modernity within the tunes selected as the underlying beats often touch on house, broken-beat and break beats combined with crisp contemporary production. There is an undeniable romantic allure that reverberates through the Hotel Costes sound that manages to avoid cheesiness – a sound that harks back nostalgically towards past music forms including folk, jazz and latin, and this gives the final execution a certain air of authenticity.

As the name suggests, the Best Of… pulls together some of the highlights over this compilations’ career. This includes work from artists such as I:Cube, Shirley Bassey, Charles Webster, Louie Austen, and the Funky Lowlives. On the plus side, the standard of the music is exceptionally high where each tune packs its own knockout punch. On the downside, by plucking out various tunes the ‘journey’ aspect that is characteristic of each Costes release (e.g. from a jazzy lounge sound working to a deep house style) is nulled and a more ‘shotgun’ sound resides in its place.

Overall this is a very tight package – easily one of, if not THE best downbeat release of 2005. Highly recommended.