Felix Da Housecat

As a tireless creator of tracks, singer, turntablist, and imprint proprietor, Felix da Housecat fashions raw, entrancing sounds rooted in Chicago’s house lineage while embracing the flashiest strains of synth pop and electro-disco. He emerged as an underground sensation throughout the 1990s, issuing acid-house and techno club cuts such as the 1993 release “In the Dark We Live (Thee Lite)” along with albums including 1995’s Metropolis Present Day? Thee Album, all while operating under numerous aliases like Thee Maddkatt Courtship and Aphrohead and helming the Radikal Fear and Clashbackk labels. The 2001 album Kittenz and Thee Glitz surfaced at the peak of the electroclash movement, and its traction thrust Felix into wider view. He went on to issue conceptual new-wave and funk-tinged records such as Devin Dazzle & the Neon Fever (2004) and He Was King (2009). From the mid-2010s onward his work has alternated between shadowy, roots-oriented material on his Founders of Filth label and more commercial club fare, among them collaborations with Benny Benassi, Dave the Hustler, and David Guetta.

Felix Stallings, Jr. entered the world in Detroit, yet his household soon relocated to the Chicago region, where he first absorbed house music via radio broadcasts in the 1980s. An encounter with Chicago icon DJ Pierre supplied the fifteen-year-old Felix with the impetus he sought, resulting in his keyboard contributions to Pierre’s 1987 single “Fantasy Girl.” Parental resistance to his deepening involvement in nightlife prompted Stallings, after finishing high school, to withdraw from the scene and enroll at Alabama State College. Within a few years he had abandoned house music altogether, until his girlfriend rekindled his interest. Following a call to DJ Pierre, now based at New York’s Strictly Rhythm label, Felix resumed mixing and production. He made his Strictly Rhythm debut in 1992 with the single “Watcha Want” under the name Wizdom. A trip to London for meetings with label executives yielded “Thee Dawn” on William Orbit’s Guerilla Records and “What’s Love About” on Freetown Inc., while further singles surfaced on imprints such as Bush and Djax-Up-Beats. His profile rose sharply across Europe, leading to the first albums: 1994’s By Dawn’s Early Light (as Thee Maddkatt Courtship) and Thee Industry Made Me Do It! (as Aphrohead).

Shortly after Stallings launched Radikal Fear Records, the imprint rose to prominence among global house labels through output from Mike Dunn, DJ Sneak, and Armando, as well as Felix himself. In 1995 he delivered the albums Alone in the Dark (as Thee Maddkatt Courtship) on Deep Distraxion and Metropolis Present Day? Thee Album on Radikal Fear. Close behind came the label anthology Radikal Fear: The Chicago All Stars and a Housecat DJ collection titled Clashbackk Compilation Mix. In 1999 the prolific Stallings issued a self-titled Aphrohead album and another Maddkatt Courtship LP, the widely acclaimed I Know Elektrikboy (on FFRR), signaling his turn toward a retro-futuristic aesthetic. The year 2001 brought Kittenz and Thee Glitz, one of the defining releases of the electroclash period, bolstered by the Miss Kittin-featured single “Silver Screen (Shower Scene).” The success afforded Felix broader visibility via features in international glossy magazines and remix assignments for Madonna, Britney Spears, and Gwen Stefani.

While preparing a full-length successor, Stallings assembled two mix collections (2002’s Excursions and 2003’s A Bugged Out Mix) and also released projects as Aphrohead and Rocketmann, the latter a self-titled set recorded in 1995. The conceptual Devin Dazzle & the Neon Fever appeared in 2004, incorporating input from Tommie Sunshine, James Murphy, and Kate Wax. During this period Stallings received two Grammy nominations for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical—first for his treatment of <>’s “Lost Love” in 2003 and again in 2005 for his rework of Iggy Pop’s “Motor Inn.” Following a 2005 collaboration with Diddy on “Jack U vs I’ll House You,” Stallings unveiled Virgo Blaktro & the Movie Disco in 2007. Two years later he returned with He Was King, again emphasizing danceable synth pop marked by the influence of Prince’s Dirty Mind/Controversy era. Stallings’ subsequent album, Son of Analogue, was distributed gratis with the April 2011 edition of Mixmag.

In the ensuing years, the demanding pace and excesses of road life as a DJ led Felix to “hit the reset button” and achieve sobriety. Identifying as “Thee Former Mezcalateer,” he reentered the scene in 2013 with a run of electro-disco EPs, among them Sinner Winner, jointly issued on his own Rude Photo imprint and Brooklyn’s No Shame. For the reflective 2015 album Narrative of Thee Blast Illusion, Felix worked with dub pioneer Lee “Scratch” Perry. Aphrohead’s Resurrection surfaced on the tech-house label Crosstown Rebels.

In 2017 Felix founded Founders of Filth and commenced issuing EPs echoing his earliest output, crediting several tracks to Aphrohead and Thee Maddkatt Courtship and enlisting Chicago house veteran Jamie Principle on cuts such as “It’s Your World.” He also released Thee Glitz Part Deux (Remix Edition), gathering twenty-four reinterpretations of his early-2000s singles. Beginning in 2018 he issued a sequence of Cats Love Velvet singles alongside Kristin Velvet, nodding to acid house’s origins. Around 2020 he put out multiple disco-house singles, including tracks with Dave the Hustler and Chris Trucher. “Berlin Sanfrandisco” with Benny Benassi and Steve “Miggedy” Maestro arrived in 2021. Spinnin’ Deep issued the rave-leaning “Obsession X” (with Dave the Hustler and Erire). “Dazzler,” an acid-house cut featuring Gettoblaster and Devon James, appeared on Founders of Filth. David Guetta issued a refreshed take on “Silver Screen (Shower Scene),” jointly credited to Felix and Miss Kittin, in 2022. Felix further teamed with Dave the Hustler and former Prince DJ Lenka Paris on the single “Go Hard.”