BatBox - Miss Kittin

The 20: February 2008

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Featured Review #18

BatBox

Miss Kittin [Nobody's Bizzness]

#18 in this month's The 20

Section: Music Recommendations Topics: The 20
Written by: lizwarner

No stranger to darker themes, Miss Kittin now lets it run loose with a new voice on ‘BatBox’.

Known originally in her hometown of Paris as a DJ, and then on a wider scale with The Hacker, somehow sinister bylines have taken forefront, whether with the fake smile of ‘You and Us’ or the brash frankness of the infamous ‘Frank Sinatra’.

Through the years, Kittin has experimented with various ranges of the dark spirit, most notably incorporating Misfits into her vocal treatment with Golden Boy on ‘Rippin Kittin’, and has barely escaped the life and death of the electroclash label.

Now, nearly a decade after first emerging onto the scene, Kittin has come to terms with her demons by way of ‘BatBox,’ a self-proclaimed “redemption”.

The idea may sound like an easy way to categorize a record, but the reality is that ‘BatBox’ truly does call up the goth spirit of Bela Lugosi and later, Bauhaus — at least for a good portion of the album.

Always poised with an electro backdrop, topics of pollution, sadness and pain, witches and vampires and dancing in the dark play prominently throughout.

Goth clubs come to mind with ‘Metalhead’, seeming revealing a dark, cavernous and lonely even though populated dancefloor.

The only close modern day act that ‘BatBox’ evokes is Adult., who have long been purveyors of a darker, deeper, rawer spirit — especially on the cut ‘Barefoot Tonight’.

Yet interestingly enough, this may be the first occasion in which Kittin absconds portions of the spoken-word approach to actually sing, such as on ‘Pollution Of The Mind’ and ‘Wash ‘N’ Dry’, which is a refreshing if not classic move.

There are relatively fleeting moments on the album that lighten the spirit, and consequently ‘BatBox’ can be regarded as the next phase of the relatively guarded Miss Kittin, the story of whom is not yet fully revealed.