Miguel Migs - “Infectious Groove”
NRK Singles Collection III by Nick Harris & Redg ‘NRK’ Weeks
Song released in 2000. Mix released in 2001.
Deep House
Miguel Migs is really one of the greatest deep house producers to have ever hailed from America's west coast. Although his first foray into music was actually as a guitarist in a reggae/dub band, he was someone who had always kept an open mind and had an eclectic taste, and that eventually led to his exposure to deep house music.
Migs' first release as a deep house artist would come in '98, and in '99 he would gain notoriety under the moniker of Petalpusher on one of the genre's stalwart labels, Naked Music Recordings. And around that same time, he released a string of records through a bunch of other labels, too, including the UK's NRK Sound Division, which released one of his greatest triumphs in 2000, Inner Excursions EP.
It's on Inner Excursions that you'll find what is arguably Migs' greatest song, "Petalpushing," but the whole record's fantastic, and when NRK's two co-founders, Nick Harris and Redg Weeks, made a mix for the third installment in their NRK Singles Collection series, they lined up "Petalpushing" and another song from that Inner Excursions EP, "Infectious Groove," back-to-back.
Now, "Infectious Groove" certainly doesn't hold the same level of timeless warmth that "Petalpushing" does, but it's still a sweet, chilled-house party extender-type of tune from the turn-of-the-century, and it feels a bit overlooked considering the track that it sits in the shadow of. In comparison, "Infectious Groove" is understated, but it has a really nice underbelly, with a kick-snare-hi-hat backbeat that's paired up with some interplay between burblingly muffled, acidic bass stabs and soft zapping. And if you listen closely enough, way beneath those alternatingly reverbed and whispered vocals of "infectious" and "it's the music" that ride atop, you can hear a subtle use of ringing xylophone, too. And once you hear that little piece, it becomes very noticeable and then feels like an indispensable ingregient, and it makes you realize that little touches like these, that aren't so easy to suss out upon an initial listen, are partially what make Migs such a good producer, and why this track is worth writing about and paying attention to two-plus decades after it was first released.
'Meticulous' Miguel Migs, Miguel 'Meticulous' Migs; Migticulous Migs; Miguel Migsticulous.
