Miss Kittin, DJ turned singer

Miss Kittin, who originally made a name for herself on the electro scene teaming up with The Hacker, started out on DJ Hell’s German label International Deejay Gigolo. Miss Kittin & The Hacker whipped up a vibrant mix of electro-pop tracks and wild live shows where the outrageous Miss K. strutted around the stage, acting as a truly electrifying presence. The double act soon acquired a fanbase that went way beyond the club circuit. But woe betide anyone who asks Miss Kittin about her flamboyant stage persona in the past. "I hate the term 'stage persona'!", she snaps, "I’m not some actress playing a role. Although, having said that, if people really need to see me as some kind of character, they’re obviously free to do so!"
Questioned about her ability to cross beyond the traditional club boundary, Miss Kittin acknowledges that, "We’re obviously tapping into a much wider public now. There are plenty of people who don’t go clubbing any more, who don’t like the whole club scene - and I completely understand that! Personally, my goal has never been to reach out and touch a wider audience. For me, it’s more about broadening my own horizons. But if somewhere down the line my music ends up reaching more people, then I think that’s great!"

These days, Miss Kittin has taken to branching out in more of a solo vein. Her second solo album, Batbox, finds her singing in more of an upbeat vein than usual and mixing elements of pop with new wave and industrial beats. The DJ, singer and record producer has made her mark on the four corners of the world and has proved particularly popular in Spain, Italy, Benelux, Scandinavia and the U.S with an increasingly rock audience. "I have to admit, my singing’s taking over a bit these days", she says, "I’m becoming less and less of a DJ and, who knows, maybe I’ll become more and more of a producer in the future. Whatever happens, I always tell my bank manager I’m a producer - it makes me sound more serious!"

Miss Kittin Batbox (Nobody’s Bizzness/Nocturne) 2008

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 Listen to an extract from Batbox

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Missill, who launched her career as a graffiti artist and graphic designer before stepping behind the turntables, has always paid a lot of attention to her image. And that goes for her own personal look as well as the graphics on her album covers. "I’m really into colours and style", she declares, revealing that "I actually made a real guitar like the one on my album cover, you know". The turntable style queen, renowned for bouts of serious clothes shopping whenever she travels, admits that, "One day, I’d like to design gadgets or launch my own clothing line".
Missill is aware of her personal and cultural 'cachet', too. "When you’re a DJ hotfooting it off the plane from Paris, you’re a big deal", she says, "That’s obviously thanks to the 'French Touch' and acts like Justice and Kitsuné. We tend to get criticised a lot back home in France, but there’s a really big buzz around the 'new French scene' abroad.”
It was a 'natural move' for Missill to go from being a DJ to producing her own records. In order to avoid spinning the same tracks as her turntable rivals, she started mixing her own versions and making bootlegs and then gradually evolved towards writing her own material. Her debut album, Targets, is as raw, intense and noise-oriented as her mixes, and draws on ragga and breakbeat as well as techno influences. A number of leading MCs joined Missill in the studio to provide guest vocals on her creations which prove to be as explosive as anything by Justice or the German star Shir Khan. "That’s what I’m like live on stage", she says, "It’s a bit like being in a boxing ring. You have to pack a rock’n’roll punch!"

Missill, who more than lives up to her bombshell stage name in the flesh, will soon have the chance to share some of that on-stage energy and aggression. A live version of Targets is currently in the pipeline - complete with real guitars!

Missill Targets (BMC/Discograph) 2008

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 Listen to an extract from Get busted

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Mlle Caro is a hip thirty-something from Perpignan, a town in the south of France where she hooked up with fellow DJ Franck Garcia, a classically-trained musician. Caro was a leading techno DJ who honed her turntable skills as resident DJ at Le Pulp and Le Rex in Paris. Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia established their reputation with a debut EP released on Damien Lazarus’s cutting-edge British label Crosstown Rebels. And their first album has already made an impact in the U.K. with Ben Watt (the male guitar-playing half of Everything But The Girl) signing them to his own label, Buzzin’ Fly Records. "The Brits have been really receptive to our music", Mademoiselle Caro says, "Maybe that’s because the British sound has played a big part in our own influences. We’re big fans of bands like Depeche Mode and Young Marble Giants".
The pair’s debut album, the ultra-melancholic Pain Disappears, mixes ultra-smooth melodies over catchy house and rock beats and stands out from the usual run-of-the mill electro releases. "We really wanted to break away from the electro thing and do something a bit different with this", Mademoiselle Caro explains, "That’s how we came to mix real musical instruments in with our machines. Franck brought the experience he’d acquired as a musician and I contributed my 'savoir-faire' from the dancefloor'. The duo, who mostly perform joint vocals on Pain Disappears, have even included a song in French on their debut opus, complete with piano and langourous violins. Mlle Caro and her male sidekick are now preparing to step out of their DJ boxes and take their unique mix out on the live scene, stepping out of the shadows into the spotlight at last.

Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia Pain Disappears (Buzzin’ Fly Records/La Baleine) 2008

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 Listen to an extract from Don't want

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Like Mlle Caro, Jennifer Cardini is another girl from the south who made her mark "going up" to Paris and honing her turntable skills at Le Pulp (a club renowned for its lesbian nights as well as its cutting-edge electro 'soirées'). Jennifer inherited a passion for the dancefloor from her parents, both committed disco fans, but it was Depeche Mode and the house scene that formed her rather than glitterball glitz.

Jennifer, who hails from Monaco, discovered Aux 88 and Laurent Garnier at the Limelight club in Cannes. And in 1998 she launched her own turntable career when her friend DJ Sextoy persuaded her to move up to Paris and form the female double act Pussy Killer. Jennifer remembers, "I was getting pretty bored hanging out in Nice at the time. We were both sick to death of local DJs who’d turn up in T-shirts promoting their favourite record label and stand up there mixing without moving. As a reaction to all that, we dressed 'thrash'-style, wearing hooded tops and going round showing off our tattoos. We played a lot of Iron Maiden, too!" Pussy Killer’s off-the-wall mix may have bemused some electro purists, but the girls’ sets generally finished up on a more techno note by the end of the night.

These days, Jennifer has launched a successful solo career, despite the fact that she neither sings nor composes her own material. She is a DJ in the purest sense of the term, although she is never one to hide behind her turntables. Jennifer’s fourth mix, released on the German label Kompakt (a reference of quality techno), acknowledges some of her earliest musical influences, such as industrial dub "à la Maurizio" and minimalist techno inspired by Florence. Jennifer’s playlist selection is impeccable and mixed in the most contagious way. What’s more, her slow, deep mixes and hypnotic beats are guaranteed to work as well in the privacy of your own home as they do on club dancefloors.

"I’d like to get involved in the production side of things at some point", Jennifer says, "But it’s funny, you know, I find I need to take my time with things. When it comes down to it, I’m a bit lazy I guess. But I’ll have to pull my finger out at some point because everyone keeps asking me that same question!"

Jennifer Cardini Feeling Strange (Kompakt/Nocturne) 2008

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 Listen to an extract from Place to be

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