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Add N to X

 
 
All Acting Regiment
15:32 / 01.08.04
Well, this band aren't exactly new but I can't find any discussions of them on here, so.

Has anyone heard of them, and what do you think of them? Are they daringly experimental? Or just odd?

Of course I have my opnions but i'll save them for later in the argument.
 
 
the cat's iao
17:58 / 01.08.04
There's going to be an argument? That's a shame.

I've had limited exposure to this band, but I do have some of their stuff and I like it alright. I don't know if I'd describe them as "daringly experimental" or "odd", but maybe I haven't heard the same stuff you have. It's edgy electronica, that's for sure.

So yeah, they're good enough. I'd get more if I had some cash to spare.
 
 
rizla mission
18:21 / 01.08.04
I fucking love their album "Avant Hard"... amazing fucked up synth-buggering mayhem of the highest order.. it's just absurdly good, especially the second half -"Return of the Black Regent"! "Metal Fingers in my Body"! That track with an army of horses getting ray-gunned! Brilliant!!

I've been quite disappointed by everything they've done since though I'm afraid.. I blagged a free copy of the follow-up album (Add Insult to Injury?) and it wasn't half as good... lots of unimaginative songs made up of bashy live drums and silly retro noises and irritating samples, like they'd abandoned all the stuff that made the previous album so striking and mental and menacing and instead churned out a bunch of time-wasting gimmicky silliness.

Actually, that's a bit unfair, it had a few good bits, but on the whole very disappointing.
 
 
sleazenation
21:37 / 01.08.04
The video for metal fingers in my body is pretty fun - a 1920s flapper enjoying the metal fingers of a 1950s robot very much in her body...

But yeah - Avant Hard is fun - the sort of stuff to listen to while you are writing/editing something...
 
 
Spatula Clarke
14:13 / 03.08.04
On the Wires of Our Nerves is pretty good, too, although the ideas aren't as developed as they are on Avant Hard.

Add Insult to Injury is kind of sucky, Plug Me In notwithstanding.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
11:42 / 04.08.04
And let's not forget the album cover to ..Wires of our nerves.

Yeah, the thing with Add N to x is they manage to be all twisted and dark without making any particular effort to fit the twisted and dark template...they are the first three star wars films to NIN's episode 1.
 
 
Tom DS
13:32 / 04.08.04
They do the analogue synthesisers played like electric guitars thing very well and are great live. I always think their individual tracks go on for just a little too long, running out of steam rather than evolving. As for experimental or odd, nah not really.
 
 
VonKobra,Scuttling&Slithering
08:38 / 09.08.04
MONSTER BOBBY.

'nuff said innit.
 
 
--
18:38 / 09.08.04
Glad someone mentioned this band, I love 'em (IMO one of the better electronic acts around these days). "One the Wires of our Nerves" is okay (though it does probably have their best album cover) "Avant Harde" is in my top 10 favorite electronic albums of all time, "Add insult to injury" is very enjoyable... I'm not as crazy about the last one they did, "Loud Like nature"... A few good songs but overall lacking.
 
 
doctorbeck
09:24 / 10.08.04
love them, like sonic youth on analogue synths, suicide with a groove on

saw them break up on stage a few years ago, smashed their instruments, said anne (?) was making jam and selling it at village fetes, played angry crazy music and trashed a theramin by hitting it against the ceiling, you have to love a band like that that

think they reformed the next day but said they would never play live again

their first few singles rocked like crazy, one sounded like the cramps, but never really bought their lps, any recommendations?


a


ps thought goldfrapp's big single last year was a popped up rip off of this band
 
 
Spatula Clarke
10:21 / 10.08.04
Er, you did read the rest of this thread before asking for album recommendations, yeah? The posts with album recommendations included?
 
 
+#'s, - names
19:35 / 11.08.04
Er, you did read the rest of this thread before asking for album recommendations, yeah? The posts with album recommendations included?
Well, at least he had something to contribute to the thread, instead of some catty comment.

Live show from 2002 here.

Really a band you have to see live to truly appreciate. Saw them twice, the second time (2002) one of the guys in the band told me Anne Shenton was in a mental hospital for eating a diet consisting totally on roadkill, but it turns out she had just left the band to work on her own stuff, Large Number, which non suprisingly sounds a lot like add n to x.

Would not recommend the first album, Vero Electronics, very unstructured compared to later releases, and I think the thing people like most of about them is they are as tight as any other band out there, they just happen to rely mostly on vintage synths. The last album, Loud Like Nature is a bit of a bore, but any of the releases between are top notch, imho.
 
 
Spatula Clarke
19:43 / 11.08.04
Actually, chief, if you look I think you'll see that I already contributed to the thread - as did a few others - with a post which already answered the question of recommendations. That there "catty comment" was a serious question, brought about by bewilderment at how somebody could reply to a thread without, apparently, being aware of the contents of 50% of the posts in it. Never mind, though.
 
 
doctorbeck
07:44 / 12.08.04
of course i read the thread, what the hell do you think i'd do at work all day otherwise? just wanted some more thoughts on which lps are worth hearing and why

i wonder if anne having left the band and...

gone mental, started making jam etc is a running joke at live shows? i think barry 7 is running a record label now, tho don't know much more about it than that, or is they are still active as a band. i supose for me what i really liked was that aura of dangerousness about them live, pounding, menacing, angry, strangely groovy and just a bit sexy.
 
  
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