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album // I Com
single // Professional Distortion
Bearing one of the best song names I've seen for
a good while, Miss Kittin's debut NovaMute single
certainly lives up to the promise encapsulated in those two words.
Beginning with a threatening pidgin English spoken word intro ('Before
I start anything I have to say...I'm undercover and my name won't
appear anywhere, okay?'), the CD's main mix (the radio edit)
is a harsh taste of distorted electro, featuring crunchy beats as
favoured by the likes of Aphex Twin, Beaumont Hannant and Autechre
from back in the mid 1990s. Some fuzzy guitar and simple lyrics
complement the angular lead melody, which sounds like a two-fingered
riff played on an amplified mobile phone. Written by Miss Kittin
(Caroline Hervé), Tobias Neumann and Thies Mynther,
for some reason I wonder whether this is couldn't have been the
outcome of Kraftwerk's meeting with Iggy Pop detailed
in 'Trans-Europe Express', given the song's electronic simplicity
and punk sensibilities. In a rather less complimentary way, there's
something about Miss Kittin's singing on the verses that reminds
me of that dreadful Christmas song by The Waitresses (sorry).
Mix two (Modeselektor's Big Muff mix) pushes
the accelerator way down, adding a classic electro break and elastic
bassline, taking sections of Kitty's vocal and looping them in a
manner not dissimilar to Nitzer Ebb's seminal 'Join In The
Chant'. Mix three (Otto Von Schirach's Gods Magnetic Cereal
Pamper mix) sounds like some of Mouse On Mars' early, skittering
electronics, stumbling around through various passages while layering
dozens of tones, sounds and beats at confusingly erratic tempi.
Finally, there's an 'aka-pella' [sic] mix (by Zdar) which
basically sees Miss Kittin singing the track over a bed of itchy,
buzzing synths - expect this to appear on a bootleg near you soon,
For good measure, the cartoon video is also included.
[The 12" also includes the original, album
version of 'Professional Distortion']
single // Requiem For A Hit
Without realising, I first heard this track during
Miss Kittin's short mix (for jogging - how Eric Prydz) for
Annie Mac's BBC Radio 1 show. My first reaction to hearing L.A.
Williams' line 'I'll beat that bitch with a hit' - delivered
in badass rapper style - was 'novelty song', one of those cheesy
tracks that DJs throw into a mix to control the flow. After listening
to the full track, my feeling has changed to full nausea. This is
the kind of immature crap that Kid606 is bizarrely held in such
high regard for - all warped electro beats and overblown synths.
The middle section is ghastly - an eighties soul backing track over
which Caroline Hervé sings. It's like a blend of the
worst aspects of eighties pop-dance, R&B and rap, and sounds
like Salt 'n' Pepa's 'Push It'. Yuck. There is a nice melody in
there, which only comes in toward the end of the radio mix, but
is deployed throughout Glove's radio mix and their longer
Requiem For A Buzz (Club Edit) version. Otherwise these mixes are
overly-similar and intensely irritating.
Salvation comes with Abe Duque's slinky,
Hardfloor-esque acid reworking. Occasional vocals from the original
are dropped in, but thankfully this storming techno version is largely
free of anything that closely resembles the original. It makes you
want to track down those early Trax sides all over again. The Ge-Gm
version (by a mysterious, shadowy pair who apparently had a hardcore
hit back in the day) also has a good vibe - only on this one it's
1992 Moving Shadow hardcore complete with breakbeats and stabbing
synth riffs. Too much of the Hervé vocals, but much less
than the original, so we'll let them off.
I used to look to NovaMute for a credible
alternative to most techno - perhaps it's the influence of EMI (this
is licenced to the UK from Labels, a division of EMI France), but
I detest the way things are headed on the strength of this awful,
awful cut.
[The 12" also includes the original, album
version of 'Requiem For A Hit']
single // Happy Violentine
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