Miguel Migs – Shaping Visions
Deep House DJ and producer Miguel Migs from San Francisco has recently released his fifth full-length album, seven years after “Dim Division”. The double 12″ is available from Soulfuric Deep Recordings out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Miguel has been on several Naked Music productions in the past, a label also known for its quality house recordings. And he has worked with brilliant singer Lisa Shaw right from his first album “Colorful You” back in 2002.
On “Shaping Visions”, Lisa is back on two tracks, the bouncing soulful house groover “Promises” with lots of irresistible synth and key pads, and the equally thrilling “Running With You”. Also, singers Aya and Martin Luther, back from his last album, are also on board to provide eerie and haunting vocals. Aya, more or less in the same vein as Lisa with just a touch of more lower registers, is featured on the slightly tech-y “Silver Sun” with its rollicking keys and the exuberantly swaying “Into The Red Sky” where Miguel uses some early 80s-sounding keys and effervescent handclaps.
Martin Luther is responsible for the fancy, repetitive deep house instant classic “Restless Nights”, and the Kashif/Paul Laurence-influenced “Back Tonight”, one of the album’s highlights with its teasing melody and thick, fat production work. Reminds me of 1982 Evelyn “Champagne” King. Perfect for loud, I mean really loud listening. Actually, I recently put the track on in my beer garden late in the evening and people started to dance. Latest single is another typical Miguel offering: “Sensations” features singer and songwriter Andy Allo on another late-night house goodie. Deep and soulful house sensation indeed.
For some more variety, we get the incredibly sexy voice of Stephen James on a couple of tracks, one of which, the very bass-heavy “Mood Lights”, also has some scintillating backing vocals. I also really enjoy Luqman Frank on “Follow Through”, which again boasts with a compelling soulful house rhythm track and pretty inviting vocals. The album opens with the handclap monster “Midnight Memories” and sets the tone for this, the undeniably best soulful deep house album of the year so far.
