Tourist - St. Germain (2000)

Ideated from: the digital crate digging of pre-Napster MP3 sharing.

Although he has releases under other aliases, Ludovic Navarre has only made 3 St Germain records in 20 years. But he can take as long as he wants to make the next one: they’re all worth it.

Here he has live jazz musicians vamping over his trancey house grooves. It’s all impossibly smooth and glassy and cool, with those live musicians breaking up the trance in interesting ways.

I was already listening to Amon Tobin–who had a similar sound and approach–so this wasn’t as earth-shattering to me as it might have been when I heard it. But I did listen to it a lot when I found it. It’s a great mix of spontaneous and composed, with a clear blueprint for each track to rein in and the musicians. it’s a really stunning accomplishment.

Tracks I Liked

Rose Rouge - a good summary of what you’ll get here. A lively groove with improv parts chiming in on top. Part jazz, part house, all awesome.

Montego Bay Spleen - Oh look, a track featuring the guitar stylings of Ernest Ranglin, who i just wrote up a couple days ago

Latin Note - kind of disco sounding but a lot of fun