Stephane Pompougnac brings us the latest instalment of his very successful mix series with ‘Hotel Costes 9’. Keeping in the theme of his previous releases and the music played by the resident DJ at the Costes this is full of sexy, French, jazzy downbeats. Melancholy in parts and funky and up-tempo in others this album takes you on a bit of a journey, however cliché that may sound.

Things start of with one of Stephane’s own tracks, ‘The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti’ which sounds very similar to Pachabel’s Canon in D, or maybe it is just me? Anyway, not a bad track but the rest of the album holds some serious gems. The gritty café vocals of Neobe, Adani & Wolf’s ‘No One In This World’, is an old world jazz tribute, very similar to Micatone in style. Continuing in love song style is the amazing ‘All I Want’ by Jehro, guaranteed to pull the heart strings, the haunting flamenco guitar and soft percussion provide a great backing to some beautiful vocal work. You could listen to this song for eternity and still love it. We move into some more chilled out electronic beats with Ohm G& Bruno’s ‘One’, a nice broken beat sit above a lazy soundscape. Good stuff.

We kick it up a notch with the funky beats of Gotan Project’s ‘Differente’, French vocals and instrumentation takes you to the heart of Paris, equally funked up is Parov Stelar’s ‘Kiss Me Twice’, big brass and a swing beat are the order of the day all held together with a nice little honky tonk piano action. There is a sweet drum solo in there as well. Moving away from the older style of jazz beats is the electronic bass of Status IV’s ‘You Ain’t Really down’ (Jazzanova Hey Baby Remix), another gem, big soul type vocals work well here. Paul & Price’s ‘Little White Roses’ (With Todd Ivy) has some strained Bjork like stylings with an undercurrent of electronic beats, if you are a fan of the aforementioned diva then you will definitely dig this.

Again Stephane steps up the pace with a little bit of funky music to finish us off with the deep house number ‘Sound For All’ (Soundstream Remix) from Rhythm & Sound, minimal vocals and a steady plugging beat are a nice change from the broken beats of earlier. Another favourite is hip hop number ‘Bluebird’ by One Self. I cannot get enough of this track, great femmeCing and good instrumentation will get you into the groove and the chorus will be stuck in your head for the rest of your day. Next up we have a very Kid Loko styled piece from Djako, with ‘Paris… demain matin…’ which literally translated is ‘Paris… tomorrow morning’, lots of cut up vocal samples, broken beats and soft flutes. Nice light funky stuff.

As with the rest of the series the music on Hotel Costes 9 is for those with eclectic tastes, but it is still very accessible for those who like nu-jazz or chillout. It drips with Parisian style and I can only imagine what a night at the Hotel Costes would be like.