The new 2024/25 academic year seems to arrive with new and intense electroclash vibrations. For example with the recent publication of the new The Dare, which sounds more like that vibe than ever (remember that in reality it has been active for a couple of years and in its beginnings it was more inspired by Calvin Harris from ‘I Created Disco’ , as proven by that sensational ‘Girls’).
Of course electroclash also resonates in parts of the ubiquitous and wonderful ‘Brat’, but it is very pleasantly surprising to hear it in many new and recent artists, who border on the genre (Shelf Lives) or directly immerse themselves in it (the Londoners Lynks). Personally my favorites are Fcukers, who in May released the incredible ‘Bon Bon’, this summer they released the great ‘Homie Don’t Shake’ and a few days ago they just put them together with other songs in their first official EP, ‘Baggy$$ EP’. Despite their appearance as British ravers, they are from New York, just like The Dare, and have already managed to open for Confidence Man’s next tour.
The point is that Shanny Wise’s fearless vocal style is inevitably reminiscent (for the better) of one of the mothers of the invention, the legendary Miss Kittin, who made her recording debut in 1997 with The Hacker with their EP ‘Champagne!’, and that It contained the song that we remember today.
‘Frank Sinatra’ is one of the seminal songs of the electroclash genre, and it is not really about making fun of Sinatra because he is dead, but rather about describing scenes of nocturnal debauchery having sex in limousines with his famous friends and snorting in the VIP area, some verses that ambiguously seem to simultaneously celebrate it (“being famous seems so cool”) and question it (“stupid smiles and autographs”). A calculatedly ironic point of view that would be one of the hallmarks of this style:
The date of 1997 may perhaps cause surprise, because ‘Frank Sinatra’ became really popular in 2001, when it was re-released in a new musical and technological situation in which it slowly went viral online. It was then that people began to hear about Miss Kittin, that mysterious Frenchwoman who made electronics, recited in that striking monotonous way, and who would end up becoming so popular.
But chronologically it makes sense because electroclash was actually born in the second half of the 90s, around the German label Gigolo Records, which is precisely the ones who released the debut of this Grenoble duo that year (real names Caroline Hervé and Michel Amato). As was customary in those years in dance music, the edition was made on rigorous 12” vinyl and not on CD.
Always with the figure of DJ Hell – creator of the label – as a unifier, it was albums like this one or Fischerspooner’s debut that collided with the beginnings of Chicks on Speed (also from Munich) and with Peaches’ period in Berlin, to end creating a new scene that was tired of the stiff techno sound of the time, and that opted for lyrics full of ironic humor and a DIY and not very purist spirit. That new generations of artists are committed to reviving it only confirms the validity of this style 25 years later.
‘Frank Sinatra’ plays on Popcasting program number 455, Jaime Cristóbal’s podcast, available at this link.
