St Germain – Boulevard (The Complete Series)

Three decades have now passed since F Communications decided to turn Ludovic Navarre aka St Germain's pioneering 'Boulevard' EP series into an album, thus creating one of the most immaculate dance full lengths of all time. Now reissued to celebrate the set's 30th birthday, it remains a near-perfect collection. More rooted in classic U.S deep house sounds than his later work, Boulevard's largely lengthy workouts saw Navarre pretty much single-handedly define jazz-house, framing him as Paris's answer to Detroit don Kenny Dixon Jr. There's barely a duffer to be found throughout, with our picks including the sumptuous early morning grooves of 'Deep In It', the sixteen minute jazz-meets-trip-hop head-nod of 'Street Scene (4 Shazz)', the jazz-house bounce of 'Sentimental Mood' and the blues-sampling house headiness of 'Thank U Mum (4 Everything You Did)'.