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*** Bob Sinclair

CHAMPS ELYSÉES

(Subliminal)

In what’s become sort of a tradition among French house DJs like Daft Punk and Stardust, the Parisian production duo Chris the French Kiss and DJ Yellow usually mask their identity behind a rotating cast of alter egos. The pair save their sexiest and swœatiest grooves for the Bob Sinclair releases, as their 1998 club smash, the Jane Fonda–sampling “Gym Tonic,” attests. The second Bob Sinclair full-length, Champs Elysées, has already spawned a dance-floor favorite in the anthemic, diva-driven “I Feel for You,” but this disc is more than just a collection of 12-inch singles — it’s a great house album. Embracing an unabashedly sensual and utterly romantic æsthetic, the pair soar through burning disco house, mid-tempo bump ’n’ grind, and drifting ambiance with a sound that is pure pleasure — lush strings, rubbery bass lines, and plenty of R&B hooks. Like true Casanovas, they alternate the fast with the slow, raising the heartbeat with an irresistible disco number (“I Feel For You”), then soothing the senses with a cosmopolitan trip-hop interlude (“You Are Beautiful”). Guest vocalists help to recall Prince-ish funk (“Got To Be Free”) and New York garage (“Freedom”); meanwhile the stuttered samples and phased-out loops of “Ich Roche” align the pair with the fractured style of their countrymen.

— Michael Endelman