britney spears - toxic (felix da housecat club mix)

the original of this took everyone by surprise with it's stunning production and catchy hook and suddenly the names bloodshy & avant (real names: christian karlsson & pontus winneberg) were on everyones lips. they had cut up this indian track and reassembled for the song and it really got me interested and i was a huge fan of the song.

it left a real good impression and i got interested in what bloodshy & avant had else done and fact was, they were two swedish guys and they had done some hip-hop and r&b production. mostly at the poppier end but most notably was that they produced & co-wrote christina millian's "am 2 pm".

i even bought the cd-single for "toxic" and 12" vinyl in a proper legit way (by that i mean not second hand) when this was out and i stand by owning it. i have quite a few records and items from artists that aren't credible but have songs that are amazing. but it's more singles than albums, britney isn't an artist i would shell out money for an album. i'd rather buy a mandy moore album or a christina aguilera album because they are and were better singers.

soon after the original was out the remixes came out and as an armand van helden fan, my focus was on that version and i think he really did a great effort and gave it a gritty touch with that thick bassline. i thought that was the version that was going to be the remix that everyone was going to focus on given that it was the a-side on the remix 12".

but i heard a lot of hubbub about felix da housecat's remix and even the heads who wouldn't give two shits about britney were on this one and i heard it and was floored. a really hard tr909 drum programming leads the way and affected pieces of vocal builds up for a small but vicious bass drop. it carries on that driving way until felix unleashes the indian string hook and then the track goes back to being this chicago hard house thing.

the track is just energy and i really like how he messed around with the vocal and the other elements of the track to form this really pounding piece of music. it was a really big shocker and reason why i was this stunned since i had grown custom to felix's more 80's flashback sound. but i was given wind on the fact that before the devin dazzle period felix was known for being very chicago sounding.

i was also given the advise to check his aphrohead tracks and more of the stuff in his back catalogue and i think you should too. solid.

buy here (amazon)