Raised all over the world (his father was in the US army), Armand van Helden spent time in Holland, Turkey and Italy and listened to music from an early age. In 1988 Armand settled in Boston, where he was attending college. There he started to work as a DJ and soon began (in 1991) to work on production.
Armand has had a major influence on latin house as well as on house music and has worked on several projects ranging from house to hip hop. Van Helden released his debut single, Deep Creed's "Stay on My Mind" for Nervous Records in 1991. During the early '90s Van Helden joined such names as Todd Terry, Erick Morillo, Roger Sanchez, Masters at Work and George Morel to record scores of club hits. In 1992 he released "Move It to the Left" by Sultans of Swing, his first single for the American dance label Strictly Rhythm. A turning point in his career is represented by 1994's "Witch Doktor" on Strictly Rhythm: it became a worldwide dancefloor hit and introduced him to a larger club audience. Armand had already remixed songs by Deee-Lite, Jimmy Somerville, New Order and Faithless, but his version of Tori Amos' "Professional Widow" became a huge club all over the world in 1996 and is still considered a classic.
During 1996-97, Van Helden remixed the Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, Puff Daddy, C.J. Bolland, Fine Young Cannibals, Daft Punk, etc. His productions also continued to be very successful, he scored hits like "The Funk Phenomena". In 1999 Armand had two very huge hits again, i.e. "Flowers" and "You Don't Know Me".
Armand has also released several Latin house cuts throughout his career. In 1994 he produced the great " Pirates of the Caribbean" EP as well as Latin Thang's "Lating Thang", which were followed by "Cha Cha" in 1996 (Logic) and "Entra Mi Casa" in 1999 (Armed), an energy-laden song with a merengue sample backed by X-rated (really hard) vocals by a non-identified Puerto-Rican lady. Some months later, in 2000, he scored back again with "Koochy" and "Full Moon" (included in the "Killing Puritans" album). One year later he produced another album: "Gandhi Khan". Armand's latest production is a remix of his hit "Funk Phenomena".
28 April 2003
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