★★★★☆
Feel the French filter grooving, the disco glare and the sharp electro cuts of ’80s cloth, and the glamorous lifestyle of first class air travel. Miguel Campbell is a man making expensive dance floor taste affordable for all, like he’s treating everyone to duty free. The whiff of cheese you may detect is more a charm not taking itself too seriously, with a playboy’s wink and a straightening of the collar. When the UK producer steps onto the runway, best believe there’ll be a flock of autograph hunters waiting to greet him.
Tapping into the essence of the high life with rhythms both warm and brushing its shoulder (“Love Electric”), the need for a female touch to rein in the ego (“Not that Kind of Girl,” the synth crème deluxe “Boy”) is responded to by the outright of irresistibility of funk – stepping beats and basslines found hanging in the hepcats lounge. “Into Your High” and its wavy guitar loop will have you checking Campbell’s passport as to whether he’s part of a Gallic family tree.
As the cologne wears off, the tracklist could have been whittled down by one or two, with the rap inclusion “Life,” though maintaining the style, an obvious candidate for eviction, added to Campbell occasionally getting slightly lost with a handful of beats circling no man’s land. Tis but minor turbulence, and there’s no reason why this shouldn’t board a 2012 best-of list.
File under: MAM, Kris Menace, Junior Jack