Dimitri From Paris

Following up his 2000 release, A Night at the Playboy Mansion - the de facto soundtrack to hip hair salons, down-tempo parties and my girlfriend's Discman - Dimitri from Paris has assembled another collection of retro kitsch cuts. This time he's got two discs to play with - separating the tracks into the self-explanatory "laidback" and "uplifting" - and he continues to add a veneer of edge-cutting house to unappreciated singles from a forgotten underground. And that's what saves the sequel. From Larry Levan's remix of Gwen Guthrie and Danny Tenaglia's take on Grace Jones to Dimitri's own re-edit of Imagination's too good for its time "So Good, So Right," After... re-imagines the disco era as a giddy celebration of decadent dreams rather than coke spoons and white suits. Bringing in Brazilian and Jamaican touches just adds to its overall warmth and background-ability. But be warned, the up-tempo CD treads the line too closely, repeatedly crossing over into diva hell.