Lords Of Acid - Am I Sexy...?

Lords Of Acid never had much interest in subtlety. “Am I Sexy...?” turns pounding electronics, provocative vocals, and a deliberately excessive sense of sleaze into exactly the kind of club weapon that made the Belgian group infamous.

Released in 1992, “Am I Sexy...?” comes from the era surrounding Lords Of Acid’s debut album, Lust, when the project was establishing its distinctive collision of acid house, new beat, techno, industrial dance, and sexually charged electronic music. Led by producer Praga Khan, Lords Of Acid emerged from Belgium’s fertile late-’80s and early-’90s electronic scene but quickly developed an identity considerably more outrageous than most of their contemporaries.

“Am I Sexy...?” is quintessential early Lords Of Acid. A hard, repetitive electronic groove provides the foundation while samples, synth stabs, and provocative vocals pile on top. There’s an unmistakable connection to the Belgian new beat scene, but the tempo and production point toward the harder techno and industrial dance sounds that were rapidly taking over alternative clubs on both sides of the Atlantic.

That crossover became central to Lords Of Acid’s appeal. Their records could sit comfortably alongside European rave and techno while also finding an audience among listeners of industrial, EBM, and Wax Trax!-era club music. The production was unapologetically electronic and built for volume, while the band’s fixation on sex, fetishism, and camp gave the music a personality that was impossible to mistake for anyone else.

This 1992 12-inch single gives “Am I Sexy...?” the extended-format treatment that suits Lords Of Acid particularly well, emphasizing the track’s repetitive rhythms and club-oriented construction. It’s a snapshot of the group during the period when their mixture of Belgian electronics and underground decadence was beginning to reach an international audience.

For anyone exploring the dirtier intersection of early-’90s industrial dance, new beat, acid house, and techno, “Am I Sexy...?” is Lords Of Acid in concentrated form: provocative, pounding, knowingly ridiculous, and engineered for the darkest corner of the dance floor.