Tuesday, August 25, 2009

get organ-ized

You can always count on Sweden to deliver the goods on a great pop group. Bodies Without Organs, developed by pop wunderkind, Alexander Bard, is one of the best of the current crop of electronic oriented groups coming out of the Scandinavian nation.

Now on their fourth album, "Big Science", BWO have announced the release of the third single from it in the shape of "Rise To The Occasion". It's a more muted affair, but it still contains all the glossy, sparkly hallmarks of their best stuff, even if their lyrics NEVER make any sense.



I love the "Metropolis" inspired styling. It works perfectly with the group's slightly daft image. The video was directed by Kamisol who also lensed the previous single, the gloriously OTT "Right Here, Right Now".



Do you get a sense that someone is borrowing song titles from the past? "Rise To The Occasion" was a hit for Climie Fisher in 1987 and "Right Here, Right Now" was the title of two chart hits. Jesus Jones scored a big hit with it in 1991 and then Fatboy Slim used it for his 1999 worldwide smash. All of the aforementioned songs don't have anything in common other than being titularly identical. And I love how they nicked the lyric from "Time (Clock Of The Heart)" by Culture Club for the middle bit of "RHRN". Clever, clever.

And with the success of Swedish songstress, Agnes, with her mammoth dancefloor ditty, BWO have gone under the knife for the UK market and have emerged with a little reconstructive surgery. "Right Here Right Now" has been reswizzled. They applied new shades of lipstick and eyeliner to the video. And they even brought along Swedish chanteuse, Velvet, to warble a few lines. It deserves to be a massive hit.


The only downside to the new single is that it's not going to be released as a CD single like they've done in the past. It will only be available digitally which means it will probably be difficult for fans outside Sweden to get their hands on the raft of remixes commissioned for it. That does not make me happy.

2 comments:

  1. OMG BWO. Vinny, I saw the video for "Temple Of Love" over the shoulder of Matt G. while sipping on a Bullet Brew at the Bullet about a year and a half ago...and I was MESMERIZED. I need to get their albums! I listened to the tracks you posted here, and then I went immediately to YouTube and started to listen to everything.

    We are two peas in a pod about this music!!!

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  2. Alexander Bard's band Vacuum was quite popular in Italy ("I Breathe" was a #1 here in 1997) and his previous band Army Of Lovers was also successful in many other Countries - there was also Jean Pierre Barda, now a famous and appreciated make-up artist.

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