"Pretty girls don't dance, they just pose to techno," Felix da Housecat says during his new album Virgo Blaktro & The Movie Disco. Virgo, Felix's 10th album, proves that after a 12-year career this Housecat may have more than nine lives.
Felix da Housecat, born Felix Stallings in Chicago, first emerged from the house scene with his single "Phantasy Girl," a song he produced under the wing of major house producer DJ Pierre. After vanishing from the music business for several years, Felix emerged back on the house radar, producing more singles and eventually forming Radikal Fear Records. Fast-forward 12 years, 10 albums and a few remixes for prominent artists, and Felix da Housecat appears as a major name in house music and the music business in general.
As though his impressive career isn't enough, Virgo is the artist's favorite album he's ever created. "This is the first album I've recorded stress-free," he states on his Web site. "This is the first album I've felt like an artist making it."
With influences like Prince, Sly & The Family Stone and Pet Shop Boys, Virgo has a delicious mix of 80s synth-pop, funk and soul -- a favorite in the making for anyone who chooses to listen. Felix aptly describes it as a "sexy, black, electronic disco record." Feast your ears on that -- songs like "Future Calls the Dawn" will make your eardrums tingle with exhilaration.
I'm a huge advocate for anything that gets me to class faster, whether it's a cup of coffee, a 2-minute bus ride or newly discovered shortcuts. Listening to Virgo on the way to class, however, was an entirely new experience. From the moment I plugged in my iPod, the entire world seemed to be posing to Felix's 70s-influenced grooves. Car doors slammed in perfect syncopation with the bass, the bus opened the doors just as a new song started playing and everyone walked to the beat. The most incredible thing about Virgo is the fact that all the songs manage to have the same beat so that the album can play seamlessly from beginning to end, yet they also have different personalities. If songs could assume human form, you'd want the tracks on Virgo to be your friends.
"Radio" would be the calm, pensive roommate who only talks when he or she has something deep and profound to say; the soulful, effortlessly smooth ladies' man would find himself in "Blaktro Man;" and that elusively charismatic girl on grounds lives in "It's Your Move." Whoever and whatever you're in the mood for, Virgo will not disappoint. This is the perfect album for both people who aren't house fans and those who are.
Felix da Housecat is the ideal elixir for the monotony of everyday life. Every song has been polished to the point of perfection. They meld into one another almost as if the album were one 40-minute song. I know, I know. How can one album done by someone I was unaware existed a week ago be so good? I find myself asking the same question, but then I just turn the music back on and forget there was a time when Felix da Housecat was not part of my iTunes library.
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