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Miguel Migs

 

Miguel Migs Bio

Miguel Migs stands at the forefront of electronic music's soulful realm.

Take one softly-spoken young man schooled in his parent’s collection of classic rock, blues, funk and soul records, infuse with a deep-seated love of reggae and dub, allow to soak in the California sunshine for a lifetime and sprinkle with a generous helping of creative inspiration and musical experimentation. Serve chilled.

If artist/producer types were culinary concoctions, such might be the recipe that produced Miguel Migs, who emerged from the 90s deep house underground scene to become the kind of artist who transcends the stylistic limitations of genre as so very few can. He is perfectly comfortable working in the studio all day with some legendary figures from across the musical spectrum, as well as bumping and throbbing dimly-lit dance floors across the globe on a weekly basis.

After picking up a guitar in his early teenage years, Migs’ first musical outlet was writing songs and playing in local Dub/Reggae bands. By the mid 90s, Migs – then in his early 20s, and already a DJ – began experimenting with producing electronic dance music. By the time the new millennium dawned, a string of releases and remixes under his own name on numerous leading indie dance labels earned him an enviable reputation among discerning dance music buyers worldwide. As Petalpusher, he had also become a stalwart of the hugely influential Naked Music stable with his original singles, remixes and compilations.

But even bigger things were to follow. His well-received 2002 debut album Colourful You came out on the legendary Astralwerks label, and Migs began to attract attention from the broader music community, remixing big-name artists as diverse as Macy Gray, Lionel Richie and Britney Spears (yes, really). Capitalising on this success, the 2007 follow-up album Those Things saw him collaborating with the big-hitting names like hip-hop legend Sadat X and Black Uhuru’s Junior Reid among others. The album won Best Dance Album in the Independent Music Awards, and was also included in Virgin’s yearly Virgin Recommends 24 ECD promotion, not to mention the single So Far went into the Top 5 in the Billboard Dance chart and #5 on the ITunes dance chart.

Those Things was released on Migs’ own label, Salted Music. Founded in 2004, Salted is Migs’ outlet for, in his own words, “music I like to play as a DJ… those B-side dubs, that underground creative feel. I never set out for it to be a large record label, it’s something we do pretty much on a part-time basis for fun. In a way it’s almost like a side project… but it’s also important to me to be able to keep pushing that sound and push new artists, because there are just so many talented new producers out there.”

Migs’ reputation is such that, when it came to recording his new album Outside The Skyline (2011, Om Records), he was able to pull together an impressive line-up of collaborators including original disco diva Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King, reggae legends Half-Pint and Freddie MacGregor, first lady of musicianship Meshell Ndegeocello, nu-jazz singer Georg Levin and bossa nova phenomenon Bebel Gilberto, alongside two vocalists who have been regular co-conspirators, Aya and Lisa Shaw.

The result is an album that’s trademark Migs. Informed by house but no slave to metronomic dance floor rhythms and tempos, it takes influences from jazz, reggae, soul and more, with a heavy emphasis on high-quality song-writing and equally high production values.

Despite achieving levels of success – both critical and commercial – he remains a genuinely humble, self-effacing individual. A globetrotting A-list DJ nominated on a Beatport poll as Best Deep House Producer who, rather than constantly bigging himself up, prefers to let his music do the talking. Thankfully, Migs’ music does much more than that. Just listen.

 

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