Add N to X
On the Wires of our Nerves
Mute
I have a bad feeling that Add N To X will be slighted and dismissed upon first glance as charming but useless retro-synth fetishists along the lines of the Rentals and Jimi Tenor. But don’t press that crap band trap door button yet. We have scientists in our midst, not boring math-rock lab technicians, I am thinking more along the lines of Dexter’s Laboratory. Add N To X are violently futurist, restricted initially by dire economic straits in their choice of tools (beat-up synthesizers), but ultimately discovering strange currents in these collapsing machines. This is the new chaos sound. Add N To X have undertaken a brutal compression of the entire “linear” history of music and from that historical regurgitation have developed an aesthetic zero hour where they beam in their alien entropy sounds. Add N To X are methodical in their trial and error rejection of genre and form – witness the twisted blues of “King Wasp,” the noise terror of “Planet Munich.” Elsewhere, minimalism, drum and bass, and the ghosts of Kraftwerk are subjected to rigorous experimentation. No vocals per se, just mechanized whispers and odd codes resulting from machine-human deviance. By the way, they can play live, too. Fans of Creed should move on at this point, but fans of adventurous sound manipulation should implant this tiny microchip behind their left ear… Mute Records, 140 W 22nd St., New York, NY 10011
