Grenoble calling

He might sound like the kind of person you’d want to keep a safe distance away from your computer, but Hacker, aka Michel Amato, is one of the main reasons why electro has enjoyed such a high profile lately.

Hailing from Grenoble, France, Amato started off playing in an industrial band, influenced by early electronic pioneers like Cabaret Voltaire, DAF and Fad Gadget. Then when Michel first heard techno in the early ’90s, he started working – together with Benoit Bollini – as XMF.

Although XMF were cited as a key influence in the development of the French hardcore techno sound, Hacker nonetheless quickly tired of making senselessly fast and hard music and returned to the electro sounds he grew up with.

Fusing the music’s eerie synths and dislocated sense of funk to Detroit techno’s dance floor sensibilities, Hacker released a couple of EPs. Next, he set up his own label, Good Life, and released ‘Frank Sinatra’, a collaboration with fellow Grenoble DJ Miss Kittin on Hell’s International Deejay Gigolos label.

Along with I-F’s ‘Space Invaders’, ‘Sinatra’, featuring Kittin’s deadpan, fame-chasing lyrics and Amato’s moody yet infectious backing, was one of the late ’90s tracks responsible for sparking the so-called electro revival. Unlike I-F’s twitchy classic, it also injected a sense of dangerous glamour into the music, something Fischerspooner and countless other acts have subsequently failed to achieve.

“This track gave us a glamorous image, something that wasn’t very common in the late ’90s,” Amato agrees. “When we were starting off, techno was really faceless music and maybe ourselves and acts like Adult gave people something to look at! In some places, especially in New York or Los Angeles, I get the feeling that nowadays, fashion and style are more important than the music, which is quite sad. At the same time, I don’t regret that we did songs like ‘Frank Sinatra’ because it was so funny.”

However, although ‘Sinatra’ created a stir, Amato wasn’t content to follow the easy route and churn out a succession of similar tracks. Instead, he focused his energies on the Good Life label and his solo work, releasing the defiantly underground electro-techno album Melodies En Sous Sols.

Influential in the development of the pulsating, club-focused sound inherent in modern electro, the work was a radical departure from Hacker’s collaborations with Kittin.

“When I worked with Kittin, it was really just for fun, nothing serious,” he reflects. “However, my solo stuff is totally different. I really want to create something serious according to my influences, to take Detroit techno and early 80s electro like DAF and The Normal and turn them into something new.”

Don’t hold your breath for a follow up to Hacker & Kittin’s debut long player 1st Album either. While Hacker has started working on his second solo album – “out hopefully, in the beginning of 2004, on Good Life of course” – and has remixes of Kiko and The Horrorist and an EP on Tiga’s Turbo label in the can, it seems that his working relationship with Kittin has come to an end.

“I just did a track for her next solo album, but I think that will be it,” he says. “It’s just that we want to go in different directions and there’s no more to say.”

Keen to focus on his own work and DJing, Hacker has just released a mix CD, The Next Step Of The New Wave on French label UWe. Ironically, although the track listing features futuristic contributions from I-F, Le Car, Dopplereffekt and Adult, the CD’s release was delayed by two years and can hardly be considered ‘new’. At the same time, Hacker believes the music has stood the test of time

“When the CD came out first, the label didn’t have a proper distribution deal,” he explains. “When the record company said to me they wanted to re-release it I was a bit suspicious, but then I listened to it again and I still love all those tracks. I’m a producer first and foremost and never pretended to be a gifted or superbly technical DJ, but, for me, music is the most important thing.”