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Miss Kittin and the Hacker’s “First Album” is a phenomenal piece of work. Miss Kittin’s lyrics bristle with chilling 21st century cynicism, humour, sex and violence. The Hacker’s keyboards absorb you into the First Album’s dark yet danceable electro universe. I’ve heard Miss Kittin and Golden Boy and Miss Kittin and Felix da Housecat but neither of those two combinations compares with Miss Kittin and the Hacker; talk about a match made in heaven. Miss Kittin and the Hacker don’t simply compliment each other they were made for each other. Miss Kittin’s ice-cold electric vocals mate with the caustic keyboards of the Hacker and implode into electronic liquid nitrogen that will blast your mind straight into orbit.
First I want to tell you to not let the name Miss Kittin fool you. The name “Miss Kittin” immediately brings to mind an image of sultry, cooing, seductive sex kittens of the Ann Margaret variety. Well, Miss Kittin is no sultry, seductive, playful, romping little sex kitten, oh no, she rips through ole blue eyes in the track “Frank Sinatra” like a ferocious mountain lion. Throughout the “First Album” Miss Kittin is vicious, blunt, detached, wicked and ambivalent and she is not to be trifled with. Nowhere on the First Album is Miss Kittin a cute and cuddly sex kitten, try jungle cat with claws extended.
The Hacker was obviously influenced by a variety of Euro Boys such as Erasure, Kraftwerk, the Human League and by American dance maestro Bobby “O”. Over the years in the rock n’ roll world many young men have been heralded as the “guitar hero”. To my recollection no one individual has even been heralded as a synth/keyboard hero. I nominate the Hacker for this honor. His keyboards are caustic, breezy, vicious, frenetic and dangerous arcs of electricity that melt the mind.
“Stock Exchange” has a busy electronic beehive buzz that sounds like the inner workings of the busy NYSE. “L Homme Dans L’Ombre” is simply aggressive and menacing electricity let loose upon the world. As waves of electricity free itself from the restrictive confines of the CD player, it fills your house like that giant electronic monster from the film “Forbidden Planet”. While trapped in this intoxicating electronic storm Miss Kittin states “I'm afraid”, she should be and so should you, it’s a fierce track.
Kittin’s vocal ohms and the Hacker’s minimalist electric monotones in “Life on MTV” makes the real world of MTV sound like a surreal and frightening German expressionistic twilight zone.
The Hacker tips his hat to Bobby “O” in the hilarious “Nurse” in which Miss Kittin sings in a more monotonous drone than Book of Love’s Susan Octavianno. Alas, being a disco singing nurse is not the dream she had for herself as a little girl. She sings that she could have been a porn star in Los Angeles, but no, she’s a nurse singing disco, and she doesn’t sound at all happy about it…. it’s a wonderful treat.
Like Ganymede’s “Euromantique” or Ladytron’s “Light and Magic” Miss Kittin and the Hacker’s “First Album” does not contain any weak tracks. Each track is an exciting electrical experience and the CD is pure listening pleasure from the first through the final track.
If an electrical injection of euphoria is what you need, you absolutely must pick-up Miss Kittin and the Hacker’s “First Album”
And please, don’t burn it, buy it.
RATING: 10
Artist Link: http://www.emperornorton.com
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