Add (N) to X, Loud Like Nature (Mute Records, October 2002)
Referring to themselves as "aggressive futurists", avant-hard trio Add (N) to X should be well placed to assume top billing among the currently fashionable electroclash movement. Unfortunately it isn't so, although it is a damn fine album in anyone's book.
The trio first came to most people's attention in 1999 with the single "Metal Fingers in My Body" taken from the Avant Hard long-player, an ode to the joy of sexual congress with machines played over a furious beat. The video tends to linger in your mind, a cartoon depiction of oral gratification being performed on a robot by a young lady (having just called him round in his capacity as a call-bot).
Since the breakdown of hegemony in British music during the 1990s, a fortuitous event if ever there was one; we have seen genres break down even further into sub-genres, whereas influences collide in a truly post-modern fashion. Taking the warped form of dance as their starting point, Add (N) to X have on this album moved even further towards a more commercial multi-genre affair (Punk Techno to space rock). Perhaps it's the enduring Bob Moog influence/obsession.
The album is a democratic affair, with Barry 7, Ann Shenton and Steve Claydon contributing tracks on an equal basis. The first single lifted from the album, the raucous Take Me to Your Leader hits the rights notes; but it has to be said that the equally raucous and storming "Sheez Mine" would have generated more attention to the album for the simple reason that it's the best song on there. "Total All Out Water" is a jaunty number whereas "Up The Punks" wrongly suggests more noise, it is in fact a space rock number. Alongside "Sheez Mine", "Lick a Battery" (come on, we've all done it) is a strong contender for the next single while "All Night Lazy" ends the album on a sleaze-rock note.
Can and Faust provide an enduring influence whereas the likes of Throbbing Gristle and Meat Beat Manifesto were simply right for their time. However, Add (N) to X remain, on the strength of this album, our most eminent futro act and in years hence people will look back and wonder why people ever bothered with the confines of electroclash when they could have had Mod Techno.
