Felix Da Housecat - Kittenz And Thee Glitz (2013 Update)

Emperor Norton: 2001/2004

(Click here to read my original TranceCritic review.)


Boy, reading that old review sure feels like a time warp. I'll grant it's almost eight years old now, so thoughts and opinions do change in the years between, but it's clear I'm still in the afterglow of my electroclash marriage, despite the genre having been subsumed into electro house by 2006. Oddball gimmick aside, I can’t imagine myself writing anything like it ever again. I’ve yet to come across a fresh ‘dumb-fun’ genre of music that I enjoyed as much as that one, and as I get up in these years, the allure of ‘dumb-fun’ music wanes, my tastes maturing with sophistication and class. Now where’s that new space synth compilation?

Actually, the real reason I and so many others got into electroclash and all things ‘80s revivalist was how it felt like reacquainting with an old friend. It wasn’t so much a wave of retro admiration or nostalgic memories spurring it on, but the realization of, “Hey, why did we stop listening to music like this?”

Basically, ‘90s music ideology could be summed up thus: if it sounds like the ‘80s, it sucks. The classic tale is how grunge kicked hair metal to the curb, and hip-hop saw quite an upheaval too, but electronic music was no less guilty. Classic electro all but vanished during the Clinton Administration, a few stalwarts like Aux 88 keeping it alive while everyone else moved onto evolutions of the sound (Florida breaks, technobass, etc.). Synth pop... hoo boy, did that ever get shunted by euro dance and its ilk. It’s amazing groups like Pet Shop Boys, The Human League, and such survived long enough through those lean times to be ‘re-discovered’ at the turn of the century (“um, we never went away, y’know”).

This isn’t to fault the ‘90s disassociation with the ‘80s, mind you, as electronic music took many brilliant steps forward during that decade; if forgetting the past to move into the future was what it took, then so be it. Sometime in the late ‘90s, however, a few scattered producers remembered all the brilliant steps electronic music took during the Reagan Administration too, not to mention the warmth those old synths carried compared to the slick polish the latest club cuts came with. Maybe some time away from electro-proper was required to appreciate the joys of synth pop, hi-NRG, and italo disco again, and Felix da Housecat was there to capitalize on our old-new fondness for the sound on Kittenz And Thee Glitz.

One more thing I neglected touching upon on that original review is the difference of this Stateside version of the album. There’s the changed cover, obviously, opting for a ‘60s spy thriller poster instead of a celebrity gossip rag mock-up the UK got. And since this is Emperor Norton, the US got two bonus remixes at the end, a Thin White Duke mix of Silver Screen Shower Scene and Röyksopp having a go with What Does It Feels Like? They’re... eh.

Felix Da Housecat - Devin Dazzle & The Neon Fever

Emperor Norton: 2004

Felix da Housecat had to have felt some pressure when it came time to follow up his ridiculously successful Kittenz And Thee Glitz. What was no more than a fun ode to music and style decidedly retro turned into a phenomenon, and Felix found himself a fashionable tastemaker, a figurehead of electroclash, and a DJ-slash-remixer in demand. That scene was short-lived though, burning itself out on ironic kitsch in but a few short years. He had to push forward to stay relevant, but how does one accomplish such when your whole (re)claim to fame's based around something purposely dated?

He managed it though, not by reinventing the game as before, but jumping on a few trends that were gaining steam in the year of 2004. Disco punk makes its presence felt, especially so courtesy of What She Wants (with James Murphy on vocals no less!). There’s celebrity navel-gazing/bashing in the form of Everyone Is Someone In L.A., some kinky grrl-power pandering with Short Skirts, Hunting Season, and my god is this ever turning into a boring review.

Bleh, I don’t know why either. I like this album. It’s fun and though lacking any of the insta-classics that were on Kittenz, I’d call Neon Fever a better overall experience. For one thing, no damn phone call or interview interludes; just song after song celebrating this weird, gaudy late-70s/early-80s notion of high times on the Sunset Boulevard. A lot of people gave approving nods to it, and Watching Cars Go By somehow became a crossover hit few DJs felt ashamed to play. Sasha F’n... um, Sasha used it on Involver! What the deals, eh?

Yet, something about it feels off eight years later. No doubt there was a great amount of hype leading to Neon Fever, and Felix had turned into such a charming success story that folks from all parties were eager to see him maintain that momentum. We enjoyed this album because we wanted to, and whatever faults there happened to be were easily dismissed. Unfortunately, forgettable subsequent albums had everyone questioning that former optimism. Where once there was celebration in dusting off classic bits of italo disco, there instead came scoffing at a lack of originality. Innovative trend setter? Bah, more like lucky guy at the right time with the right people in the studio.

So therein lays the problem above. A regular review of Neon Fever at this late stage will either be apologetically analytical, or ridiculously disparaging - here, with me actually liking the damned thing, probably the former. Felix da Housecat simply has gathered far too much critical baggage in the years following it to treat anything within a vacuum anymore. Kittenz is still regarded as a classic, for good or ill depending on your stance over trashy electro house music. Neon Fever, however, is something only fans of that scene will enjoy, where ‘the larger picture’ doesn’t matter. It seemed more important at one point, but like so much celebrity fascination, you now wonder why.

Felix da Housecat - Kittenz And Thee Glitz (Original TC Review)

Emperor Norton: Cat. # ENR 70472
Released June 2001

Track List:
1. Harlot (intro) (3:10)
2. Walk With Me (4:10)
3. Voicemail w/Miss Kittin (0:47)
4. Madame Hollywood (2:51)
5. Silver Screen Shower Scene (4:40)
6. Control Freaq (5:11)
7. What Does it Feel Like? (2:36)
8. Happy Hour (5:02)
9. The Enter View (1:14)
10. Glitz Rock (3:40)
11. Analog City (1:18)
12. Pray For A Star (3:54)
13. Sequel2Sub (3:50)
14. Magic Fly (3:00)
15. She Lives (3:03)
16. Runaway Dreamer (3:22)
17. What Does It Feel Like? (Röyksopp Return To The Sun Remix) (6:59)
18. Silver Screen Shower Scene (Thin White Duke Mix) (8:34)


(2010 Update:
Possibly one of the breeziest reviews I wrote. I honestly didn't anticipate it turning out the way it did. This was a case of me writing everything that immediately came to mind, and even if the idea was wacky, I ran with it. Not exactly a 'gonzo' review but definitely unconventional for us at the time. Hey, it's fun to read, ain'it? Oh, and the album still holds up excellently, as its inclusion in so many 'Best Of The 00s' EDM lists can attest to.)


IN BRIEF: If the mods had an 808...

It's time again for another edition of Trendsetting Albums: Do They Hold Up?, folks. This time, our glorious host, the straight-edged, gives-any-music-a-chance-provided-it's-not-CJ-Stone host Sykonee takes a look at yet another of the electro house movement's pioneers. Up to the plate is the album that practically set in stone the template for the genre we still hear today: Felix da Housecats Kittenz & Thee Glitz.

Hard to believe it's been half a decade since this was released. It doesn't feel that long ago all the underground hipsters were going apeshit over the raw, rocking analogue sounds coming from Felix and his compatriots (Electrikboy, Dave The Hustler, Miss Kittin, Junior Sanchez, Tommie Sunshine, Melistar, and Harrison Crump all lent their talents to this project). Yet here we are, five years later, and this music has been given the official stamp of mass-popularity approval thanks to Madonna's latest album. Now even your mothers can discover that awesome wicked cool sound you were gushing over in trendy clubs just after the turn of the century.

For no better reason than my electroclash camp was firmly with Tiga's Turbo label (and by association International Deejay Gigolos as well), I initially never jumped on the Felix bandwagon until after the hype died down. Of course, I'd heard some of the big singles but hadn't felt it necessary to pursue his material when I'd had The Hacker, Vitalic, DJ Hell, and so on to fill my needs. As such, I'm diving into Kittenz & Thee Glitz fresh. Let's see if time has been kind to the Muzik Magazine 2001 Album Of The Year.

And Harlot, billing itself as an intro track, is an encouraging sign of things to come. The mood is slinky, the synths are stuttery, and the rhythm is energetic. Only trouble is these elements rarely line-up together to form a standard song. Okay, fine, it isn't really trouble since this is an intro track (why blow your load all at once, right?), but it is a substantial tease, making you beg for more like it. With that in mind, Harlot is probably one of the most effective intros I’ve heard in a long time. Can't wait to see what's next.

Deep house, it would seem. Only... it's not. Structurally, Walk With Me has all the trappings of deep house -laid back rhythms, soulful lyrics, unobtrusive backing hooks and pads- but the sound patches are in a completely different world. The pads are a warm analogue synth, the percussion is perfectly suited for techno, and the lyrics are finely filtered into robo-land. Of course, at the time this was produced, these tricks had already been in use in numerous other styles of EDM. But deep house? Felix would have to be quite cheeky to tamper with that sacred genre.

Following a voice message from Miss Kittin, we're thrust into the two huge singles from this album. Since everyone's undoubtedly heard them by now, I'll just move along. Eh? You want some commentary from me anyways? How about I never really cared for these much. Sure, they're undeniably catchy, and Silver Screen’s march-a-long rabble rousing nature is irresistible on a dancefloor, but I personally feel it was done better on this album.

Happy Hour -now that's the one (yes, I know I'm going out of sequence; bear with me on this). It's structurally similar to Silver Screen but is a lot more fun. The fuzzed-out bass has some actual melody to it, there's great analogue synths, and the lyrics are a hoot! C'mon, I dare you to resist singing along to "808s, gives you power" as that beat throbs in the background. Happy Hour should have been an even bigger hit than Silver Screen. Why wasn't it? Probably the Miss Kittin factor had something to do with it. She was the rising starlett at the time, so her collaborations would get more attention. It's a shame, too, because I actually kind of prefer Melistar's sultry voice to Ms. Herves deadpan delivery (dammit, did it again!).

As we go further into Thee Glitz, I'm beginning to wonder where all the '80s revival theme' music journalists at the time were proclaiming made up the bulk of this album. Yes, there's plenty of 808 drum machines and analogue synths being used but only as a sound source. The musical styling, however, feels more like mod than synth-pop.

Another thing that strikes me is the diversity of all these songs: house, techno, soul, rock, italo. Every track borrows from a different style and is given an electro gloss-over without abandoning the substance of their attributes. With this much variety on hand, I can see why the music media was so quick to lump Thee Glitz into the electroclash camp -there's just no easy way to shuffle this into a tidy genre.

And that, my friends, is the mark of a great album (yes, I also know I’m not detailing all the songs anymore; just continue to bear with me). When a producer or team of them can craft an album that defies easy genre-fication, spawns tons of imitators, and still manages to sound fresh after the fact, you do indeed have something special on hand. By leaping across all sorts of scenes, Kittenz & The Glitz has created its own little bubble that exists outside of the trends of time. It sounds just as relevant being a part of the electroclash movement as it would have were it part of the mod rock movement or synth-pop movement. And it will undoubtedly be required listening for whatever the next post-modern hipster movement will be. Pick this up to be ahead of trends before they even start up again!

...Or better yet, just pick this up because it is a great collection of songs that, barring any production miracles in the electro house scene this spawned, will probably never be matched again.

Hmm. That kind of wraps up this review nice and tidily, doesn't it. It'd be redundant of me to go back now and detail all the songs like we normally do so I'll introduce my patent pending Interactive Review here. It's quite simple: I'll give you a selection of words, and you can arrange them however you see fit to help me describe my reactions to the songs on this album.

Step 1:
Choose from one of the following styles of music:
House
Techno
Soul
Mod Rock
Italo

Step 2:
Add Electro as the prefix.

Step 3:
Choose from one of the following words I felt describes what I heard in this release:
Awesome
Sweet
Rocking
Smooth

Step 4:
Add Fucking as the prefix.

Have fun!


Score: 9/10

ACE TRACKS:
Happy Hour
Glitz Rock
She Lives


Written by Sykonee. Originally published 2006 for TranceCritic.com. © All rights reserved.