airplay favorite at MATT RADIO

Lords of Acid is the kinky techno project of Maurice Engelen and Oliver Adams that has earned a cult following with its sexy S&M stageshows,  risqué lyrics, and exciting musical mix of rock and techno.

Lords of Acid began as one of the dozens of projects in the New Beat period by Engelen (aka Praga Khan) and his companions.  The first single, "I Sit On Acid," had such an impact and lifespan that Lords Of Acid has grown into a project with a full career, as opposed to such acts as Shakti, Major Problem, 101, Miss Nikkie Trax, Phantasia, and Digital Orgasm, which all had a considerably lesser life.

"I Sit On Acid" was put together by Engelen, Nikkie van Lierop (aka Jade 4 U, Darling Nikkie), Jos Borremans (aka Chris Inger), and Harry van Oekel (aka Dirty Harry).  Their first gig as Lords of Acid was in Roeselare, but as the band had only one song, they borrowed the song "Acid Queen" from another act called Major Project.  For the stage act, Natalie Delaet, a blonde femme-fatale, was hired in.

Maurice about this episode later:  "Praga Khan's 'I Sit On Acid' came out in 1988 and it was a real hit in Belgium.  In a way Lords of Acid was just a project name, and I had a lot of projects at that time.  Most of these projects were successful for brief periods of time, but "I Sit On Acid" kept selling.  Every month (over a period of three years) we shipped 300 copies to the States.  I knew that there was something going on.  In 1991, I got a call from Caroline Records in the US and they asked me to write a Lords of Acid album for the States.  In those days I was very busy because Praga Khan was taking off big time in Europe, so I decided to record this first Lords of Acid album in four weeks' time.  That was the only spare studio time that I had available.  And see what happened.  Strangely enough, we didn't realize what was happening because we were touring as Praga Khan all over the world."

The Voodoo-U track "The Crablouse" is an exemplary illustration of the foulmouthed humour of the band. The song got some remixes on its maxi-single with titles such as "No Visible Symptoms," "It's there to stay," and "the Seven Year Itch."  The lyrics to it--- on a less subtle note--- read, in part, "Here's a message for the girls about vaginas and the consequence of fiddling with a partner.  Mind your labia; they're never out of danger, if you're gonna go to bed with a stranger.  Creatures might be hidden in his pubic area; it's the crablouse that's out to get ya!  It's gonna grab you by the pubic hair.  Shake your pussy when the bastard's there.  It's there to stay, sucks all day.  It's there to bite, my parasite."

Engelen, about these kinky lyrics in an interview with Whatever magazine:  "The US record company people asked us many times to be a little more careful with the lyrics, but when we're in the middle of the recordings I don't really give a shit about that.  I just go with the flow.  I think our music really helps people explore their sexuality.  It helps people to get out of their shyness so they know it's okay to be sexy.  When we write our music it's always a bit funny and not very serious so people know that sex can be fun.  The thing I really like is to write lyrics that can be translated in any direction.  The best example is "Pussy."  An eight year old child who listens to the song with innocent ears will never ever get the idea that we're singing about a vagina.  For the kid it is completely harmless to listen to the song."  (MATT RADIO editorial comment: we'd like to bitch-slap any parent who'd put a Lords of Acid track within ear's reach of his child.)

For Voodoo-U, Praga Khan wrote the music with Oliver Adams and Carl S. Johansen (the alter ego of Ludo Camberlin), with lyrics written by Nikkie.  For the Lords' third CD, 1997's Our Little Secret, there was another treatment : Praga & Oliver recorded the entire album instrumentally, and later on Nikkie and Maurice added lyrics. For the US tour that followed, Nikkie went on stage with the band for the first time. She wrote about this in her diary:  "Went on tour with Lords of Acid.  Why oh why did I ever let ex-boyfriend talk me out of it?  It was fantastic!  This was like nothing else I’d ever done!  Finally I got to see who those Lords fans were.  I have to say, I was a little shocked at how seriously Americans took this music.  Our songs were supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, but they thought different!  One of these people had the whole Voodoo-U cover tattooed on his chest and belly (imagine a body covered in demonesses). There were slaveboys and girls in chains… then there was this fashion thing where people get fangs made at the dentist’s!  That totally grossed me out!  But I would do it all again!"

Nikkie never did it again, though, because her collaboration with Praga & Oliver ended. In her place came former showgirl Deborah Ostrega.  During a tour in 2000 that had both Praga Khan and Lords of Acid on the bill, Ostrega certainly got the blessing of Penthouse:  "Ostrega doesn't wear panties, which became quite evident to 1,500 fans when her latex dress crept over her midriff, exposing her nicely manicured bush. The sold-out crowd screamed its approval while Ostrega howled the words to "Undress and Possess," seemingly unaware that her Belgian beaver was openly on display."

But Praga Khan offers a caveat.  "Let's be very clear: we never strip, and we do not fuck on stage. What happens in the audience is a different matter, though.  I must confess, I sometimes have a hard time concentrating on my keyboard.  As befits our reputation, there are often police officers next to the stage, so we gotta be careful what we do.  The Lords of Acid are in the first place still about humour.  If we sing about pussy, then we do that with a smile.  And if you look at what happens in the discotheques on the weekends or on late-night tv, all that is much more extreme than what the Lords of Acid bring."

In 1998-1999 the band released Expand your Head, a cd with all kinds of remixes of previously released Lords tracks, and Heaven is an Orgasm, a limited edition album for the fans.  It wasn't until 2001 that Lords of Acid came up with a "regular" album again,  Farstucker.  This was, strangely enough, the first Lords release that was promoted in Europe also.  It contained track titles such as "Scrood Bi U," "Pain and Pleasure Concerto," "Lucy's F*ck*ng sKy (A Treatise on the Practical Methods Whereby one can)," and "Lick my Chakra."