Kissy Sell Out: The U.K's response to the French invasion.
The saying goes that you can’t polish a turd. Well, there’s an exception to every rule, and 22-year-old Kissy Sell Out is currently the number one turd-polisher in the country.
Witness last year’s much anticipated return of ’90s girl band All Saints. It was a damp squib, but Kissy single-handedly salvaged proceedings with possibly the greatest remix of the decade thus far. Colchester-born Kissy’s reworking of Chick Fit is majestic. It sounds like a crack-addled Minnie Mouse being led into the studio by Stock, Aitken, Justice and Waterman, and it belly laughs in the face of the plodding original. Our hero is a little coy about this, saying, “I just brought out what it should’ve been like.”
Kissy made his first tracks in the final stages of his degree at St Martin’s College Of Art And Design in London while “spending a lot of time alone listening to goth albums”. His grades suffered as a result, but the feedback was so positive – single of the week in the Rough Trade record shop, amongst other things – that he persevered.
If the remixes are the attention grabbers, Kissy’s own compositions prove he’s no one-trick pony. Harriet sounds like 25th Century Ukrainian acid-folk music, while his debut single, Her, has already been championed by DJs such as Nightmoves , Skull juice and Kissy’s mate Sinden .
Kissy could be considered the UK’s response to the French invasion, spearheaded by Justice and the Kitsune and Ed Banger labels. Accordingly, pop stars such as Gwen Stefani and surly ex-Sugababe Mutya Buena are clamouring for one of his remixes. But he’s not going to leave his roots behind just yet. “I love to get involved with the crowd,” he says. “I always bring air horns, there’s lots of rewinds, and I get everyone cheering. For me it’s all about the party.”
The one sell out you’ll want to see.
Kissy Sellout’s debut single, Her, re-released on San City High in July.
Written for the Summer 2007 edition of Dummy.
