For over a decade, Felix da Housecat (Chicago producer/DJ Felix Stallings Jr.) had made amazing, fucked-up house records, starting with his work at age 14 on "Phantasy Girl" in 1987 with DJ Pierre. Professional waxaholics and hip clubbers loved him, but the general public had no clue who the dude was--until 2002. That's when the domestic release of his Kittenz and Thee Glitz album exploded on dance floors and chic boutiques like a stunt cock. Now he's producing P. Diddy's next album, and celebrities like Madonna, Iggy Pop, Kelly Osbourne, and Britney Spears have coaxed Felix to polish their turds. Huh?
Blame this turn of events mostly on the club banger "Silver Screen Shower Scene," his collab with sang-froid French chanteuse Miss Kittin. Due to Kittin's haughty, deadpan vocals adding a glaze of Eurotrashiness to the song's deep, dirty 4/4 motion, and acidic synth riffs like someone squeezing off laser-gun rounds, Felix got lumped into the electroclash movement. Strangely, much of Kittenz veers into sappy synth ballads and wistful, spacy electro pop that hark back to a time when melodramatic keyboard jockeys like Ultravox and the Human League did more than fill used-vinyl bins. Not exactly the stuff to give Larry Tee a stiffy.
Felix's new album, Devin Dazzle & the Neon Fever (Emperor Norton), is superior to its predecessor, but it's still plagued by a corniness unbecoming of an underground-house legend. (Affectless white-chick vocals are so 2001, darling.) The disc starts promisingly, though. "Rocket Ride" radiates raucous energy with a sassy female vocalizing over a peppy dance-rock backdrop. The album peaks on the next track, "What She Wants," sung with mock-soul fervor by LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy. Jason Pellegrino's fat, elastic bass line, Luis Galdames' chika-wah guitar accents, and the double-time massed claps sent my mind reeling back to Tones on Tail's hyperactive new-wave hit "Go!" Another highlight is "Watching Cars Go By," whose propulsive house stomp embellished with ker-chinka guitar could make it another club classic.
"This is more of a headphone album," Felix commented in URB. "Kittenz was more for the club, in-the-car type of listener.... I am doing some insane panning with the vocals that you only notice if you are listening with the headset. I wanted to take it to another level with more live instruments."
Well, respect to that. But there's also something to be said for knowing your strengths (see Felix's brilliant Aphrohead project for proof). While he has said he's become bored with dance music, here's hoping Felix gives us at least a little of the raw, raunchy house that ignited many Chicago warehouses back in the day.
