I’ve always had the strangest crush on Miss Kittin. In another life, I conducted one of the first American interviews with her in support of the Miss Kittin and The Hacker LP, and then promptly ran screaming from anything she touched as the ruined glitter-temple of the great Electrocla$h swindle came tumbling down.

Then, lo and behold, the stoic cold-as-ice persona and sub-standard bleepiting saw Kittin, with the release of her first artist album, I Com, survive the crash by doing what those who’d been listening to her from a perspective other than American living in Berlin vicariously through techno had known she could do all along-prove to be an actual, skilled purveyor of electro and minimal-infused tech-pop. I Com had a punkish joyride of an ode to her manager (”Meet Sue Be She”), a screaming buzz-saw workout of a first single (”Professional Distortion”), one of the greatest DJ tools ever laid to vinyl (”I come dot com”) and a massive, amazing re-working of a SmashTV classic (”Dub About Me”, her ambient tear-jerker of a cover of “What About Me”).

She followed the album up by releasing monthly DJ sets on her web site that lavished in the fact that her ears and heart have always held stock in more than now-laughable but still scene-making classics like “Frank Sinatra” and “Madame Hollywood” would lead to believe-ambient, punk, Detroit-cum-Berlin-and-back-’round minimal, the rock-star-at-the-turntables feel of Bpitch Control and the Factory stuff.

2008 finds Kittin, as she puts it, being “kidnapped by bats” and re-emerging with Batbox, her first full-length album in four years and her first release on her own label, Nobody’s Bizzness. If I Com surprised with quality, Batbox surprises with mood and tone: low-slung bass, pounding synths, a Kittin who is (gasp!) singing-and not just singing, intoning. Like, with emotion.

God, this is going to get taken the wrong way, but Batbox is the inverse of Britney Spears’ Blackout-the backgrounds here are dark and trembling territory, but the voice is soothing, emotive, at times a little haunting.

Miss Kittin: Play Me A Tape

Only a trifle, a small fraction, of what’s coming on Batbox-but, at first listen, this track stands out as my favorite. Kittin’s in love, yes? Dreaming of a mixtape, of a love-note, of something whispered in her ear to drift her to sleep. This is damn near my definition of an anthem, and I’ve now played it three times on its own.

The first single from Batbox, “Kittin Is High”, is streaming over at her new, psycho-cat-bat website.

Again, and to reiterate: Kittin is now doin’ it for herself. Support her. Buy the record, buy the older singles, sign up for her newsletter.

Then throw your damn hands up and dance, this one’s worth it.