Customer Reviews

Vol. 8-Hotel Costes

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Stephane Pompougnac and his Hotel Costes series has a bulletproof reputation for providing us with the smoothest and outright best of modern lounge and down beat house music from around the world.

Sadly gone are the days of the original Hotel Costes sound. Number eight in the series is a very weak addition and the compilation is saved by about five tracks. There is a higher emphasis placed on a more up beat house sound which is dissapointing to the fan of the Pompougnac chillout grooves.

"Only in New York", "Jus' Dance", "Love Food", "Wind" and "Smooth" are the only tracks that stay loyal to the Hotel Costes theme. Most fans of the Costes series began their collections with the famous Vol.2: La Suite, but don't expect to hear anything of this nature.

The beauty of the Hotel Costes series however, is that these collections appeal to many different people with many different tastes in music. I can listen to this CD, but based on the quality of some of the previous Stephane Pompougnac releases, I remain slightly dissapointed.

I recommend De-Phazz for that "Smooth Smokey Lounge" sound.

The presentation of the CD is very impressive though and inludes a very tasteful mini-poster of the cover girl. As a faithful Stephane Pompougnac fan, I'll keep my fingers crossed for Vol.9 in the series.

Opinions will always vary, but as the owner of the whole HC series, I can say Stephane has delivered musical innovation yet again with Vol.8. Yes, it is different, but then that's the point, non? Each volume has its own mysteries, delights, and curiosities. Each volume stretches in different ways. Each volume provides a different soundscape for its listeners...a different experience. Vive la difference!

Vol. 8 starts slowly with a vaguely retro 70's pop flavor. Along the way, the disc takes you deep, picks you up, fuses deep house with new jazz, blends unique vocals and musical instruments to create a very sophisticated, urban, soulful mood.

I highly recommend this melange to anyone who understands what I'm talking about here! Yes, "lounge" lives!

After purchasing costes 6 and 7, I had the idea that he series was heading into the realm of having every second track being skipped on my disk player. Thankfully this is not the case. The album starts off rather hypnotic with 'love machine' making you think you were deep into the night being mesmerised by a cajun beauty in some cajun backwater. the second track has the beat of something that I have never heard before and I recommend you pump this through your 5.1 sound system. here and there volume 8 delves back into into its deep house roots with spectacular effect teasing you with just enough of the deep stuff before launching you back into beat and rough and ready listening. Long may the series last.does not have the elegance of number 4 but certainly a step back in the righr direction. Bravo!

I recently purchased both san francisco under a groove and costes 8. The sf under a groove album offers some cool downtempo jazz and new soul electronica and a dash of that dubby great funky deep house from the city by the bay.

The Costes album maintains the spirit of the series and offers up the light lounge type material. Both albums are funky and are worked well at a recent cocktail event. Enjoy.

Best offering from Pompougnac for a while. Bright, flowing urban sounds. After having enjoyed the series to no. 5, I was somewhat disappointed with 6 and very much so with 7. Consequently, I nearly didn't bother with 8, convinced that the rot had set in. But I'm glad I took a chance on this one.

This is the first CD I've purchased from the Costes series, although I've always had it in the back of my mind to pick one up. Unlike many of the other reviewers, I found this to be an awesome CD (even on the first listen)--one of the best electronica/chill-ish CDs I've bought in a very long time. Perhaps I am able to have this sense becauase I don't have any of the other Costes CDs to compare it to. I can usually count on such compilations to have only a few winners, with the rest being more or less bearable (but not mind-blowing). This CD was a very pleasant surprise, in that I only felt that one or two songs fell into the "bearable" category, while the rest were just superb. I would highly recommend this CD.

For those who've been listening through the years, we know that 6 and 7 were less than what they should have been in light of other compilations out on the market now.

No. 8 on the other hand is one of the best in the series. The beats will soothe you on one hand and want to make you move on the other. Now this is Hotel Costes as it should be.

Also, this is the kind of music I like to play in my car for long long distance driving. It won't make you want to speed too much, but it will make the miles fly by.

I never thought that I would write this about one of the Hotel Costes albums, but I am quite disappointed with this, the latest release from the Hotel Costes series!

I've just bought Costes 7 and Costes 8. And, while I feel that Costes 7 is a great album, filled with the usual beauty and variety of previous Costes albums, Costes 8 just doesn't feel like it belongs to the same league!

Surely there are some interesting songs (tracks 1, 5, 8, 10, 11, 15 and 16 are my favourite ones), but as a whole this album lacks the sensuality and style that previous releases had!

This CD (#8 in a series) is probably one of the weaker ones. The best one for me was Hotel Costes 5, with Hotel Costes 3 almost there as well. But the last two albums seem to be going in the wrong direction, I liked 6th album better then 7th, and 7th better then this last one. There are a few good tracks, but no novelty, nothing that cathes you by surprise or makes you go back and listen to the track again. In fact I skipped to the next track after about half the song, the first time I listened to it. I tried to listen to it the second time - still nothing. It seems the better the album cover, the worse is the content. Could do better, Stephan!

still prefer this one over 9....
above and beyond this one is.... cannot stop listening to it.