Kittin / The Hacker: "1982"

A 2002 live performance of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” shows Miss Kittin dancing awkwardly and adjusting a slipping corset top before singing with a thick accent and noticeably flat pitch. The Hacker, her partner, runs the decks and reshapes Dave Stewart’s production into ramshackle Miami bass. Their ability to pull it off on a second stage signals both con artistry and major influence in electronic music. Electroclash grew out of late-1990s rave culture, with Miss Kittin providing the recovery. Both artists from Grenoble shared tastes for cold Italo disco and icy new wave, and their 1998 single “1982” predates the term electroclash, which later became a label for performance-art and dance-punk acts.

"At a time when being a woman in dance music meant you were a big voice or an expressive face, Miss Kittin wasn't much of either. In a 2002 live performance of Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," recorded at the Festival Internacional de Benicàssim in Valencia, Spain, the DJ, producer, and emcee-secret identity: Caroline Hervé-spends the better part of eight minutes dancing somewhat gawkily and adjusting her corset top, which keeps slipping down. When she does finally sing, it's with none of Annie Lennox's steely brio; her voice is thickly accented and at least a half-step flat."

"Manning the decks is the Hacker, Miss Kittin's partner in crime, who flips the sawmill machinery of Dave Stewart's production into ramshackle Miami bass. That they got away with it-at second billing on the second stage-makes them master con artists or one of the most influential electronic acts of their era."

"Electroclash emerged in the long hangover of '90s rave culture, and Miss Kittin was administering the IV fluids. Both she and the Hacker (aka Michel Amato) hailed from Grenoble, at the foot of the French Alps, where they picked up a shared taste for frigid Italo disco and icy new wave. "1982" was the commercial single from the duo's debut EP, Champagne!, released on DJ Hell's International DeeJay Gigolo label in 1998."

"Back then, Champagne! would've been filed under nü-electro, or neo-Italo, or maybe new new wave. The term "electroclash" wasn't coined until a few years later, when Larry Tee threw the first Electroclash Festival at Williamsburg's Luxx nightclub in the fall of 2001. It became a catchall for the performance-art antics of Peaches and Fischerspooner, DFA's blocky dance-punk, and, later, whatever malfeasance Justice and the Ed Banger crew were cooking up."

Read at Pitchfork