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Hooked on Radiation
by Atomizer

Writers - Fil OK
First released - 2003
Original album - Rubber Youth (Atomizer)
Producer - Jimmy Cauty, Atomizer, Pet Shop Boys
Subsequent albums - Disco 4
Other releases - single (didn't chart)

The Pet Shop Boys remixed this 2003 "electropunk" single, which was the first release on their own Olde English Vinyl label. (It was also released on Atomizer's label, Gigolo Records.)

A Belgian duo, Atomizer consists of Fil Jones (aka DJ Fil OK) and Jonny Melton (aka DJ Jonny Slut), whose real names are Patrick Claesen (aka Pat Krimson) and Joseph Georges Denis Vanbockryck (aka Jeff Hypp). This thing with pseudonyms can get pretty complicated, can't it? At any rate, it's the "PSB Orange Alert Mix" that appears on Disco 4.

The somewhat scandalous sleeve art—made only slightly less scandalous by the camouflaging placement of the band name, Atomizer—has a fascinating story behind it. Having gained fame during the late 1970s and early 1980s on a popular (and, yes, somewhat scandalous) graphic t-shirt sold at Malcolm McLaren's SEX boutique in London, it originated in 1969 as a blantantly homoerotic drawing by artist Jim French titled "Longhorns – Dance" (though often mislabeled "Lonesome Cowboys"). It was reproduced on a number of occasions through the 1970s in assorted gay publications, one of which caught McLaren's eye, inspiring him and business partner Vivienne Westwood to put it on the aforementioned t-shirt. It soon become one of the principal artifacts leading to their prosecution for "exposing to public view an indecent exhibition." They ended up having to pay a fine, but the ensuing publicity had the result of establishing the t-shirt and its image as transgressive icons, thereby rendering them even more popular among the shop's mainly punk clientele. No doubt this "transgressive icon" status inspired its use for the "Hooked on Radiation" sleeve art.

Mixes/Versions

Officially released

Pet Shop Boys mixes only:

List cross-references

 

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