Starting with possibly The Best Ibiza Record Ever, Stardust’s Music Sounds Better With You is always going to be a hard act to follow. Shut your eyes and you can hear the jets flying over Space, touch the warm water lapping at your feet and feel the rush as that crazy Punk Thomas Bangalter strums his guitar and kicks in that bass. Better every time.

Coming a close second for sheer feel good funk factor is the Buffalo Bunch remix of Phoenix’s If I Ever Feel Better, a sampled hook so infectious the first time you hear this you have to keep on sticking the needle back on it. Pure dope from a band that show off France’s pop mobility.

Those young whippersnappers Daft Punk weigh in with High Life from their epic « Discovery » album. They may think they’re robots and act more mysterious than Serge Gainsbourg in the Seventies but Guy-Man and Thomas certainly know how to pluck your rhythm stick and take us higher … and they’re still only little boys!

Enter stage right We In Music with Grandlife coming on like Chic sharing a jeep with Sly and The Family Stone on a night drive through Miami. Disco house heaven.

The fly, insistent grind of Cassius’ La Mouche rewired by DJ Falcon is twelve inches of pure pleasure but it won’t hurt you! Cassius’ Philippe Zdar and Boombass are the grandaddies of the Parisian crowd alongside Dimitri. They created a defining moment in French house music with the wickedly eclectic album 1999.

Air’s Modular Mix sees Etienne De Crecy getting busy on the knobs and dials. An awesome production that rekindles fond memories of little yellow ten inches, Air pre-dated the current interest in chill out by years with their mad noises and sleepy bleeps. Etienne turns in a dub house disco re-edit par excellence.

Minos Pour La Main Basse - Le Patron Est Devenu Fou (‘The Boss Has Gone Mad’ to you non Francophiles) came from the same series. The kind of record Lee Scratch Perry would make if he made a house tune and this record, along with Motorbass’ Ezio, turned a corner in French music history. Eat your heart out, Johnny Halliday.

The Punks are back once more for their version of I:Cube’s Disco Cubizm, another defining moment in remixes. An understated 4/4 adventure with that minimal riding piano line that ebbs and flows, a tune that’s still caned now. Timeless.

Benjamin Diamond may be a fairly new name on the scene (he did, however sing Stardust’s monster) and crops up here with Little Scare worked up by Cosmo Vitelli. An unbelievably booty bassline injects the soul into the party.

Alan Braxe and Fred Falke’s Intro almost eclipses Stardust for sheer genius. A masterpiece, the first time we heard this we all grinned for a week. Mysterious, addictive and if you ever need a tune to get the ladies dancing (cos then everyone will) this is it. And if anyone can invent a better bassline we’ll give you a million francs.

If Stevie Wonder ever had sex on ecstasy he’d sound like Demon Vs Heartbreaker’s You Are My High. A monster Balearic boomer, but notice that trademark guitar sound and the resonating bass guaranteed to loosen your trousers.

Superfunk’s Lucky Star comes off their block party album « Hold-Up » from the groundbreaking Fiat Lux label. Guest Ron Carroll brings the raw flavor of American house to the perfect fusion of French funk with more flava than George Clinton’s g-string.

DJ Mehdi has sold hundreds of thousands of French hip hop albums silencing critics and highlighting the strong links between the scenes that flourish in the environs of Paris, the ghetto tech. Mr De Crecy gets on the dials for Break Away.

And where better to end than with Alex Gopher’s Party People mixed by none other than Dimitri From, guess where, … Paris! A staple in Dim’s sets, this has them going mental from New York to Tokyo.

So where’s the party at? My House In Montmartre … naturally
Bon mots: Rob da Bank