Virgo 4 aka Virgo is Eric Lewis & Merwyn Sanders (not to be confused with the earlier, “other” Chicago based acid house group known as “Virgo”also releasing on Traxx , consisting of Marshall Jefferson, Adonis and Vince Lawrence). After almost 20 years, In A Vision still holds up as a quintessential deep house track.
“In A Vision” was released at the end of Trax‘s heyday. The 303s are gone and in it’s place, ominous synthized strings not unlike the techno coming out of Detroit at the time.
Trax was infamous for the quality of their pressings. Poor mastering and cheap vinyl plagued all inital Trax releases. Fortunatly, the inital release was met with so much acclaim, that Trax immediatley licensed the album to English label Radical, who in turn put out a quality pressing of the Virgo album and a 12″ single of “Do You Know Who You Are/In A Vision”, including vocal versions of each track not on the Trax release.
Recently Trax re-issued a much better pressing that is worth getting if you don’t feel like spending the $$$ money for a Radical Records pressing, which is more sought after for it’s quality and the vocals on the 12″ single.->BUY(album on Radical)BUY->(12″single on Radical)BUY->(Trax re-issue)
5 responses so far ↓
1 Christoph // Nov 15, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Damn, I heard this track before. Brilliant stuff. Thanks for the ID.
2 Eric Lewis // Feb 20, 2009 at 2:42 pm
This is so interesting to us,Merl and I. We are obviously much older now and still are the best of friends. We greatly appreciate the things being said about the music. We still get together with others and talk about Larry and doing music again. If you want to know,we did the most of the music on a roland 505 and a Juno 2. We would crank out music like crazy for Tracx but 75% of it never got out,its a shame.
3 Raf // Feb 22, 2009 at 10:18 am
Great to hear from you. Always great to hear what equipment was used, where the artists’ heads were at, where they were coming from. It also kills me that when there are tons of unreleased tracks lying around. With the advent of digital labels, it’s so much easier for the artists to release thier own material. Especially when there are plenty of producers trying to recreate that sound, sometimes only for a quick buck because it’s back in favor again. Would love to hear some new/old tunes!
4 merwyn sanders // Feb 28, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Check me out (Merwyn Sanders aka Merle S.,Virgo 4, M.E., Ace & the Sandman) on Facebook. Eric and I plan on making a lot of unreleased tracks available soon. Also check out my latest release “Elevator House Music” on “Twilight Trax” cd or at itunes. Thanks for the kind words and support!
5 Dave G // Oct 6, 2009 at 6:35 am
M & E, guys this is my favouritest all-time favourite record of all-time
Bought it back in ’89 in UK, on vinyl, and played it till the grooves wore-out.
Get this released again on CD dammit!.. too hard to trackdown for less than $200.
Have to say these tracks – as well as Marshall J’s own Virgo stuff – led me to buy all my Roland gear (202/303/707/808/909/JX synth) around that time, and much bliss was had.
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