Alix Roy: Club You
BTrax Records

Alix Roy's Btrax single spins three radically different variations on “Club You”: the chilled original featuring Roy's gravelly vocals, a driving live treatment, and an even clubbier mix by Scan X (Stéphane Dri) who converts the original into a storming club banger, a colossus that stomps so determinedly Roy's vocal can scarcely be heard amidst the relentless beats and looping whorls. The stripped-down live mix pushes the roving bass line to the forefront but the major hook is its whiplash electro stabs with their deathly cobra sting. Synth squiggles and a pulsating groove animate the tune but step aside when his threatening “Club you” vocal mantra emerges halfway through. The original is the most laid-back version with Roy's half-whispered voice out front and augmented by funky hi-hat patterns and a slippery bass line. Clearly audible for the first time, the lyrics' mystifying character now becomes evident (“You think I'm dead ‘cause I do something else / Just practice game in different places”), making the third treatment as compelling as the first but for a different reason.

June 2007