tracks 8 through 13, a sexually charged section that heads from a Gaya song “Never Meet” that advocates casual sex (“Don’t ask me if I have another lover \ that’s not the reason we’re here with one another”) and one-night-stands to Kristy MacColl’s hilarious number “In These Shoes” (one example of the namesake of the song is when MacColl responds to an Englishman with a penchant for Stilettos: he asks her to walk up and down his spine to which MacColl responds in a bitingly sarcastic voice: “In these shoes? I doubt you’d survive.”) To One Track Mind’s “I Like You” and three more equally charged numbers.

Of course the album’s not without its flaws. Although it does manage to match the beats correctly and perform listenable transitions from one song to the next, you can tell exactly when the switch is made on the first listen. Pitch isn’t matched, tones aren’t matched: the producer of this album should be lauded for his selection but chastised for his technical proficiency.

But most people are used to albums that don’t mix at all, and thus the small degree of beat matching Hot Party does will sound great unless you spend all of your time at parties listening to the samurai of the turntable sets known as the DJ.

The one major hurdle for American listeners, however, is the album’s very diversity. As Universal is one of the few music conglomerates capable of such an eclectic album, you have people singing in at least five different languages: English, Russian, French, Spanish, and a Spanish-derivate language. Most of the songs have some English in them, but they’ll start speaking French all of a sudden and you can just kiss knowing what they’re saying goodbye.

Despite that, Hot Party is one of those albums that is worth seeking out. Bug Universal. Ask for it by name. Beg your local record store to get it, and pay import taxes if need be. It’s that good.

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