SYSTEMATIC ECSTATIC

I'm going to start posting some of my ILM 2005 Poll blurbs here. Most are thoughts that I originally wanted to post here and never got around to doing. This one could be cut down, and is a bit over-the-top, but I felt the need to detail my love for this track.


Missy Elliott (feat. Ciara and Fatman Scoop) - "Lose Control (Jacques Lu Cont mix)"

The original "Lose Control" is not a suggestion. It is an order to "get out of control" barked by Scoop, spit by Missy, and tauntingly crooned by Ciara, while the persistent, maddening, ascending loop drives you crazy until you really do Lose Control (and start seeing Tommy Lee dancing like a Muppet).

Jacques Lu Cont (a.k.a. Stuart Price a.k.a. Thin White Duke etc.) takes a different, more intuitive approach on his remix (first brought to my attention by one Clap Clap Blog). The line "HYPNOTIC ROBOTIC ROCK YOUR BODY" is extracted from Missy's original vocals and, brilliantly, looped so it becomes exactly what it says it is: a mechanized, repetitive, hypnotizing loop that does nothing but make you move. The beat creeps in slowly in typical JLC style, the loop eventually drops down a frightening octave and Missy comes in with more authority than ever thought possible, while the absence of the irritating original sample makes the shouted back ups that much more invigorating.

Then in comes Ciara. Oh man, Ciara. Her voice becomes powerfully sexy with the new beat, and there is a hundred times more chemistry in her edited-in trade-offs with Missy than in the original. By the time the shouted "MUSIC MAKE YOU LOSE CONTROL" fades in (a sample which actually began the original), it's no longer a command. You realize you don't have a choice: you've already lost control.

The beat gives way to a spacey yet driven mid-section, where Missy spits pure insanity. She gets to the original "hypnotic robotic" line and it seems revelatory, only to have the song move on to the following line for a new loop. As everything slowly fades back in, the hit really does seem automatic. It feels like Pet Sounds for the new century or some whacked out shit like that. The beat drops in a final time and nothing else matters. Control lost.