Add N To X
On The Wires Of Our Nerves

The electronics of Add N To X, an English trio formed in the second half of the '90s, is a maddening mix of the most terrifying electronic noises that analog keyboards can produce, an ideal soundtrack for an army of mechanical monsters. Their music is a test of strength for the listener's nerves, (and indeed, no title was more fitting) exasperated by a barrage of metallic clatters to the brink of exhaustion, encouraged to surrender begging for mercy, but above all... silence. At this point, you have to choose: you can either be drawn into the cybernetic dance or be repulsed by it.
In short: you either love them or hate them. In some ways, they are the younger siblings (or even the offspring...) of the legendary "Chrome". Almost thirty years later... this might be what our heroes from San Francisco would have been. Times change, and so do sounds, but the conceptual approach is quite similar.

Take, for example, "The Black Regent": A pounding hard rock rhythm sets the pace for a myriad of synthetic improvisations with a single "drone" mimicking the electric guitar.
One can catch glimpses of the apocalypse in the subsequent "Planet Munich," with its long analog tails and seismic techno rhythms. The ramshackle rhythm' blues of "King Wasp," and the "heavy" drumming of "Orgy Of Burbastis" seem like a futuristic parody of Led Zeppelin. More than a dirigible, these are spacecraft. The title track is a tribute to the splendid possibilities of analog sound and to its most illustrious pioneers, particularly to Jean Michel Jarre. Among the more "neurotic" moments of the album, surely to be counted are the pneumatic hammer of "Hit Me," a clear example of their concept of "music," and the splendid "The Sound Of Accelerating Concrete," perhaps the most complex track of the bunch: a melancholic keyboard riff serves as a prelude to a sonic torture that would not be out of place even in the most extreme "raves."

Without a doubt, a work of talent, original and disturbing.
On The Wires Of Our Nerves is a tribute to history seen from the present.