Martin Solveig first caught my attention with the great The Heart Of Africa on Chez Records, then came Edony on Africanism and some time ago we saw the release of Mr. President and now his debut album is available. If we can trust the Mixture webiste there will be a CD available at the end of May that'll feature some more tracks than this 8 song double LP.
As one might have excepted Sur La Terre is filled with nice house grooves like I'm A Good Man (ft. Lee Field on vocals), the superb You Are My Friend (ft. Michael Robinson) or Someday (ft. Mr. Robinson too). The afore-emtioned Heart Of Africa appears here in a different version that puts the emphasis more on the saxophone than on the woman declaring the heart of Africa. More on the African trip, though, is the catchy Linda that has all the right ingredients to become a summer hit if released as 12" single...and than wait nine months and lots of little Lindas will appear :-)
There are also two slower more R&B like songs featuring LT Brown (Destiny and Burning) and the instrumental title track Sur La Terre, that's more a mixture of Smooth Jazz meets lounging music.
All in all a good LP that shows that you don't have to come straight out of New Jersey to do proper house music.