The year 2022 is opening with excellent news in the electronic music scene, and perhaps one of the most important so far is the return of a legendary duo, a pair that marked an era during the first decade of this 21st century.

After a thirteen-year hiatus for the Grenoble duo Caroline Hervé aka Kittin and Michel Amato aka The Hacker, they now present their Third Album, a new collection of euphoric and uncompromising anthems, crafted in their unmistakable style.

Caroline and Michel are two iconic and influential artists in their own right. With four solo albums and countless EPs spanning the last three decades, Hervé is as well known as a DJ and producer as she is for the instantly recognisable vocal style she has made her personal trademark. The discreet influence of Amato, another French dance music legend, who has been making music since the late 80s and applying unrivalled technical prowess to everything from synth-pop to Techno and avant-garde electronica.

 

With Third Album, the pair revisit the partnership that brought them to underground electronic stardom. They first met in the 90s and quickly bonded behind the decks, taking that union into the studio towards the end of the decade.

Their first records date back to 1997, releasing a series of singles on DJ Hell’s International Deejay Gigolo Records that showcased a fully formed, seamless sound. Fusing a shared love of bizarre Italo Disco and eighties New Wave sounds with Detroit Techno and Electro, 2001’s First Album was a work acclaimed in unison by critics and audiences alike, making them the spearhead of the Electro movement that was becoming so fashionable at the time.

 

21 years after that first full-length, Third Album brings us a return full of energy and varied sounds. The opening track, 19, wastes no time with its skeletal drum patterns and sweeping bassline, setting the tone for Ostbahnhof, a tense, Techno-centric sound artefact that pays homage to a Berlin institution, and is the track chosen as the first advance single. As always, Kittin and The Hacker wear their influences with pride, channelling everything from Electro on Retrovision and Soyouz, crunchy post-punk on La Cave, acid on tracks like the groovy Homme a la Mode, or euphoric New Wave on Purist, whose chorus sounds like something out of a forgotten 80s club anthem.

 

We went back to the essence of what we were doing, and what we do best,” explains the duo. Electronic storytelling. No compromise, no self-censorship, the contrast of poetry and irony”.

Although they haven’t been completely inactive, especially in the case of Caroline (we recently referenced one of their tracks on Nina Kraviz’s latest Trip Recordings compilation), it’s very comforting and heartwarming to hear comeback works as rounded and resounding as this Third Album by Kittin & The Hacker.

 

Third Album release date on Nobody’s Bizzness: March 25th, Ostbahnhof available here

 

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