This album has been four years in the making, but since Miss Kittin dropped a hint, in a answering machine message on Felix Da Housecat's 'Kittenz and thee Glitz', that she was working on a proper album with The Hacker some anticipation has been generated, not only due to the promise of the classic 'Frank Sinatra' track, but especially by the way 'Silver Screen' has propelled Miss Kittin in the limelight as the prime voice of dance. She earns every bit of adulation, or should one say demands? Certainly the music The Hacker creates on 'The First Album' is an impeccable collection of nu-electro, escaping a full-blown retro vibe by maneuvering between the gravitational pull of both Giorgio Moroder and Dopplereffekt, for every ode to Visage ('1982') there are tracks that sound like a poppy version of Drexciya ('Life on MTV'). But notwithstanding the quality of the music, what pulls this above the crop of your average electro are Miss Kittin's vocals.

With her deadpan, cooler-than-thou, Euro accent she spins tales about the upper class of dance music, the bored decadence of the V.I.P. area, hotels and limo's. There is a fascination with chilled, emotionless sex, the void behind the sunglasses, and the addiction of the gaze. It's in parts silly ("You know Frank Sinatraaah/He's dead/dead…Huhuhuhuh"), ironic ("Hard work being a DJ billionaire every day.") and most of the time very sexy. And for all its man-machine sheen the album has a very real humanity beyond the fascination with the physical, best exemplified by the pounding 'You and Us' a touching paean to the connective power of dance music, "This is what our music is about, you and us." Highlight of this classic in the making is without a doubt 'Walk on By', a tough beat that echoes Green Velvet is accompanied by a massive propelling bass over which Miss Kittin with great timing finally makes the connection between the perception of the supermodel walking on the catwalk drowned in photo-flashlight and the emptied mind of dancer lost in stroboscopic effects. Best track of the year on one of the albums of the year. Be seduced.