The name Miguel Migs is synonymous with the soulful upbeat house sound that has permeated the San Francisco scene for many years now. This sound is a style that you won't hear pounding out of the speakers of most clubs on weekends. It's more refined, suitable for Sunday afternoon tea dances or cocktail parties. It's also not always dancefloor-friendly, especially when you want to hear wailing divas and thumping bass lines. He has done mixes for artists as diverse as Macy Gray and Britney Spears, but has never had a hit of his own on the dance charts. That tide has turned with his current single "So Far." The mixes of Rasmus Faber, Joshua Heath, & Eric Stamile may toughen up the grooves, but the sound is still classic Miguel Migs.
Rasmus Faber's Farplane Vocal Mix is the first cut offered here. This mix doesn't stray too far from the original version of the song. It takes away the bass guitar and adds some extra drums and percussion to make it a bit more danceable. At the three-minute mark, the song really picks up as the drums kick into second gear. The vocals, provided by L.T, are light and airy and flow easily around the music. Eric Stamile's Old School Revival Dub is up next and, as the titles intimates, has a very eighties feel to it. Synthesizers and drum loops surround the bells and chimes that sound like they were borrowed from an old Madonna remix. It's a very cute version, but being a dub, it's missing most of the vocals. It is also probably the most dancefloor ready of any of the mixes. Finally, Joshua Heath's Funky Hat Mix brings back the guitars and adds even more along with a filtered house sound that works well. The bass is funky and the vocals are manipulated and toyed with, but not in any distracting sort of way. The additional guitars give this mix that Masters At Work sound that Miguel Migs is known for replicating very well on his own. The original version of the song is here as well, which incorporates many of the sound that each of these remixes tends to build up on.
Miguel Migs has been making house music for almost a decade and is one of the premier DJs and artists in his field. "So Far" is just a sample of how talented this man is and thankfully is giving him a hit on the dance charts after all these years. The remixers on this track stay true to the original sound and don't do anything to drastically change that. Pick up a copy of the CD "These Things," from which this single is derived, and discover why so many people have become such rabid fans of the Miguel Migs sound.
