Conventionality will out! To start a club dance album with no less a superstar than Frankie Valli and his uniquely appealing and not-falsetto warble, in a remixed rendition of ‘Beggin’, is a master-stroke designed to grab the coolest of kids, while not burying them neck deep in the cloying ecstasy of trance and electronic dance soundscapes.

And, yet, with scarcely a hint of embarrassment at the inevitable comparisons, with that omnivore Mark Ronson, whose remixing talents have clearly captivated superstars in several fields, there is a wealth of grubby brass, drum back beats and soulful funkiness that His Right Regal Ronsonness has not entirely cornered and called his own. Among Kandi Lounge’s inimitable guests are old chums like Crazy P, Mr Scruff, Reel People and Joey Negro’s Sunburst Band, which produces a fantastic cover of David Bowie’s ‘Fashion’, of which the Thin White Duke would surely feel most proud to know that his sounds across the ages carry remarkable currency, while he ages not one jot.

This is not the usual Hed Kandi fayre, which is normally more conventional dance and trance stuff, but, what the hell, it is of the highest merchantable quality and reproduces as competently in the car (a great trip made all the better with the uplifting and energetic pop and soul funkiness), as it does on the Bose speakers of my PC, while scribing things other than music reviews. Kandi Lounge consists of two CDs, the contents of which will appeal to a more laid-back market than is customary from this label and house producer. You can sense its internationalism, its will to reach deeper into the funkier sounds of yesterday, while reaching a younger audience. This is sweet stuff, with a sense of urban cool wrote large above its neon flashing omnipotence and there is not a dud in da house.

Iain Robertson