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Instead
of completing more Barbie material, Alexander
abruptly stopped the production and formed a
different outfit in 1988 - without Chantal.
Inspired
by Rosa von Praunheim's (German filmmaker
and gay activist) challenging documentary 'Armee
der Liebenden oder Aufstand der Perversen' ('Army
of Lovers or Revolt of the Perverts') from 1979,
which suggested a diversity of gay American
experience that has since been usurped by a
more homogenous model, the trio decided to name
themselves after the movie.
Together,
the army - Alexander, Jean-Pierre
and La Camilla - were ready to combat
new territories with their unique and fresh
approach to music.
The
first single to be issued by Army of Lovers
was the catchy When The Night Is Cold,
followed by Love Me Like A Loaded Gun
and Baby's Got A Neutron Bomb. However,
the songs went quite unnoticed, which prompted
them to spend more time in the studio and experiment
with different sounds.
During
the last quarter of 1989, in between putting
together more Lovers' material, Alexander issued
a brief dance project under the name of COMA.
The official catchphrase to describe its only
single, Tales From Planet Coma, was "A
fantastic voyage into the unknown".
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Army
of Lovers: "Nothing for us is impossible!"
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They
all believed what had been done so far musically,
had only touched the surface of what could have
been done in terms of mixing musical styles
from various parts of the world. As a result
the band tried to co-operate with, rather than
sample, exotic and ethnic acts. Army of Lovers'
new music was easily accessible to a magnitude
of people. Anyone, anywhere, could find a common
language in their songs.
"We
knew when we started that we had to compete
with our ideas", recalls Alexander. "That's
what other successful groups from the continent
like ABBA and Kraftwerk did to
make it. They'd compete with ideas rather than
big budgets."
The
Army had one other ace in the hole: they couldn't
play any instruments. "We thought either
we'd hire musicians to do it for us," says
Alex, "or we could learn to use computers
and do it ourselves." To date, nearly every
track recorded by Army of Lovers has been computerized.
"We make our records sound and feel more
human because we intentionally add slight mistakes,"
he adds. "Nothing for us is impossible."
Indeed!
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Click
here to read all lyrics to Disco
Extravaganza
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That
was evident listening to their debut album Disco
Extravaganza, which hit the shelves in 1990.
Though songs like Ride The Bullet, Love
Me Like A Loaded Gun, Shoot That Laserbeam
and Mondo Trasho reflect a masterful
grasp of House, hip-hop and other contemporary
dance styles, Army of Lovers weaved into its
songs a wonderful pastiche of French rap, Japanese
chants, operatic arias and countless other ethnic
patterns.
Barbie Goes Around The World, the last
Barbie-single, was modified with new lyrics
and vocals by La Camilla and included on the
LP as My Army Of Lovers; Tales From
Planet Coma was edited and renamed into
Planet Coma 3AM. When The Night Is
Cold didn't make it on the album because
of copyright reasons.
Disco
Extravaganza only spent two weeks on the
Swedish album chart, peaking at #49. The incomparable
video to My Army Of Lovers won a Swedish
Grammy, though.
A
slightly different version of the album was
re-released for the US market on August 27,
1991. Now it was self-titled and contained some
remixed versions of the previous songs.
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