- This CD has already been reviewed thanks to Ben Hogwood, however it has just seen a local release in Australia. The local version is called Defected presents In The House and overseas versions are called West Coast Sessions.
Regular visitors to Aussie shores, Jay-J and Miguel Migs are "In The House", pulling out the latest in deep house tunes from their record boxes - both DJ's showcasing the best in their brand of San Francisco style of deep house.
CD 1: Jay-J's mix
Jay-J's mix blends in latin rhythms, funky basslines and sweet female vocals which are usually associated with the style. The mix starts off with the uplifting Diamond Life featuring the vocals of one Jay Sealee. Jay-J & Chris Lum bring out the latin beats with the percussive Latinesta.
The mix moves into deeper territory with Manjima's cover of No, No, No - a little too early to bring out the chilled out stuff at track 5, though. Jay-J then unleashes Swirl Peepz' So Much Like Me for a bit of that bouncy, cheeky funk before mixing in Don't You Love Me by Sir Piers featuring the sweet vocals of Monique.
Towards the end, Jay gets a little spiritual with The Light by Michelle Weeks, which mixes a little gospel, jazzy sax and funky bass before rounding his mix off with his own Keep On Rising and ending off the whole mix with the 80's funk of ML's Funk - heavy on the bass, and dirty with the synths.
CD 2: Miguel Migs' mix
Continuing on from Jay-J's blend of jazzy deep house and kicks off his mix with his sax laden remix of City People.
Migs' own Dubplate Sessions gets things pumping with the ragga house style - Calling all Rastafari! - before bringing out the dirty bass on Rhythm Slaves' I Can Feel It. Miguel transforms Gene Farris' Black Satin into a sexy house thumper right before the funky guitars come out on Viekka's Try To Be Calm.
Sandy Rivera's Changes featuring the vocals of Haze is destined to be a huge tune - deep and funky and it sits on the border between deep and progressive house. It uses a really nice bass stab which just repeats all the way through the track. Ethnicity 1 by Grant Nelson gets deep into percussive territory and adds in a little steel drum for guaranteed ass shaking.
Veteran house producer Blaze brings back the soul into the mix with the vocal Breathe, which has a slight latin feel to it as well. Migs then rounds off the mix with Jay-J and Chris Lum Without Love featuring the sweet vocals of Latrice.
Overall it's a pretty decent mix, but it can tend to get a little on the drowsy side - probably meaning that some of the deep house tunes selected are a little too deep. However for fans of deep house and especially Jay-J and Miguel Migs - those who are into lush vocals, percussion, funky bass lines, mixing the deep tracks with some uplifting ones - this is for you.