Kittenz & Thee Glitz
Try Felix Da New Wave Revivalist. Since pop culture seems caught in a 20-year loop, Felix is right on time, withKitten and Thee Glitzpartying like it's 1982. Not that he's alone; the '80s have been a ubiquitous presence on dance floors for a while now. Retro reworks such as Peter Black's heavily caned version of Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue" led the pack of back-in-the-day DJ tracks that made the rounds over the past year. Let's not even get into the Valley Girl fashion statements that all of the cool kids are currently making. You'd think Molly Ringwald still ruled teen bedroom walls.But no one's gone the distance like our man Felix. Instead of just blowing the dust off of relics from his childhood closet, he's embraced the neon ethos of the era and produced an actual New Wave album that still sounds eerily contemporary. So much so that it swiped the 2001 Muzik magazine award for Album of the Year from such heavyweights as Basement Jaxx's Rooty and Outkast's Stankonia. OK, so maybe it is time to bust out the old Member's Only jacket . . .Utilizing the bored, monotone vocals of DJ Hell signing Miss Kitten, robotic rhythms and sweeping synths, tracks such as "Harlot," "Madame Hollywood" and the ubiquitous DJ favorite "Silver Screen (Shower Scene),"Kittenz and Thee Glitzplays like the great album Berlin forgot to record after Pleasure Victim. Except "What Does It Feel Like?," which is pure Dirty Mind-era Prince. The only thing missing is the Patrick Nagel cover art. Like, totally.Scott Sterling--From URB Magazine