In-grid RENDEZ-VOUS: THE SOUND OF THE MEDITERRANEAN (Zyx)

Created and arranged by Larry Pignagnoli, who with Theo Spagna and Spagna’s sister Yvonne K. put together a series of visionary Italian disco records under the Spagna name during the mid ’80s and early ’90s, Rendez-vous gets a shot at a wider, American audience thanks to the inclusion of "Tu es foutu" ("You’re Fucked") on the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy soundtrack. This song, the second of 12 tracks on the first of this set’s two CDs, is, like all of this set, sung in French and is partly bal musette, partly tango, partly jazzy chanson, and (no surprise here) partly Italian Eurodisco. It’s a combination that makes sense in the context of Parisian house music, with its jazzy airs, acoustic instrumentation, historical awareness, and slow, sleazy, sexy tempos.

This is not a teenager scene at all, and In-grid’s contralto, now cute, now brassy, bespeaks a woman in her 30s and, abandoned in love, feeling older still. The complexity of Pignagnoli’s music aggravates the intricacy of In-grid’s interpretations. Even where the music emphasizes one of its component elements at the expense of the others, however, the unusual textures are intriguing. Here are songs that continually surprise, with accordion solos ("Pour toujours"), streaky Italo-disco sound effects ("Souvenir d’été"), dream pop ("Mais la nuit . . . il dort!"), Greek guitar and percussion ("Je ne crois pas’), 1960s garage rock ("Ah l’amour, l’amour," reminiscent of the Rascals!), and French variété ("Esclave de toi," full of Mylene Farmer style, and "Va au diable," rough, rocking, and sexy in the manner of Zazie). The second CD features eight techno and Italo-disco remixes of "Tu es foutu," "In-tango," and "Shock," all of them useful, some transcendent.