12 French House and Techno Artists You Should Know

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Caroline Hervé, who has made a name for herself in DJ booths around the world as Miss Kittin, has been redefining the limits of dance music culture since she was a teenager growing up at the foot of the French Alps in Grenoble, France.

Where most subgenres are given plain, sometimes sardonic titles, Miss Kittin pioneered a new style that reads as badass as it sounds: electroclash. This gritty and grimy, hard-hitting, dance-floor-ready, calamity of different influences rips through club speakers the same way she ripped through the rave scene in the early 90s.

Miss Kittin went to her first rave at the spry age of 16, and it was plain for all to see at that time that there was a sonic shift happening in the taste of the youth. New wave was taking over Europe at just about the same time as Detroit techno was laying down roots overseas, and suddenly European and American styles came smashing together in the club for all to revel in.

To Miss Kittin, this was her calling. She enveloped herself in this music, and upon returning to her parents’ home the morning after that first rave, she decided to leave and she never looked back.

Miss Kittin first met The Hacker in 1990. The two would eventually become the closest collaborators and come to define the electroclash sound. As one would expect from two people with aligned tastes in music, they met in a club and spent much of the early 90s hitting every dark and dingy venue they could.

It was around that time that Miss Kittin also started DJing internationally, first traveling to the birthplace of house music, Chicago. These global absconds were fueled by the music she was making with The Hacker. Singles like “1982” and “Frank Sinatra” were in demand all over the world and she was ready to provide her bespoke electroclash sound.


Today Miss Kittin and The Hacker continue to work together having put out their new LP 

in March of 2022, while she is also collaborating with modern tastemakers like ANNA and Hot Since 82.

France

alternative dance

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electroclash

electronica

french techno

neo-synthpop

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Ki Creighton

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Seb Zito

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DJ Harvey

James Haskell

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Gene Farris

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Axwell

Honey Bun

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Zakes Bantwini

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