St Germain - Tourist [2LP Orange Canada Import]

St Germain's Tourist returns on orange vinyl, a double LP Canadian import of the 2000 album that carried French house into lounges, cafes and living rooms around the world.

Ludovic Navarre had already helped shape the French dance scene, but on this record, released through the legendary Blue Note label, he folded jazz, blues, Latin rhythms and dub into his deep house grooves. The result sold millions and became one of the defining crossover albums of its era, as comfortable on a packed dance floor as on a lazy Sunday morning stereo.

Rose Rouge builds its hypnotic loop around a sampled vocal from Marlena Shaw, with jazzy horns riding a rattling, propulsive groove. Montego Bay Spleen features Jamaican guitar great Ernest Ranglin, while Sure Thing turns a John Lee Hooker sample into a smoky, slow-cooked blues. So Flute floats along on airy woodwind and a steady, shuffling beat that never breaks a sweat.

Spread across four sides, the album breathes the way it was meant to, every bassline and brushed cymbal given room to settle. More than two decades on, it remains a perfect soundtrack for late nights and slow mornings alike, and proof that dance music can be as elegant as any jazz club.