They are Add N To (X)

Quite a while ago, I was bemoaning the disappearance from YouTube of this short Channel 4 film about our fave analogue synth abusers Add N To (X).

Thanks to Romain on facebook for flagging it up...



Be quick and watch it, it could be taken down again by next week!

L'Amour à la Chaîne pt.4

Hmm, seem to have gone a bit off the boil with these. Hopefully this will kick start la Chaîne again [see pt.3 for the story so far]...

In response to the terrace-style stomp of Cara-Lin we awaken the terrace-style chanting of this little terror.

"YOU'RE NOT SINGING, YOU'RE NOT SINGING, YOU'RE NOT SINGING ANYMORE..."

I reckon by the time Bobby and his thugs are through with us we'll all be going home in a fucking ambulance.


Monster Bobby first reared his ugly head on Add Insult To Injury, the 4th album from, now imploded, analogue synth fetishists/abusers Add N To (X).

But who are Add N To (X)?


Add N To (X) formed in 1994, with a motley arsenal of vintage synths and a perverted mind-set at their disposal.  They delighted, confused and titillated with their Avant-Hard brand of proto-electronic sci-fi robot-sex rock.  They also made some saucy videos, which you can view at your risk: here and here. Then they fell apart in 2003, and an ugly synthesizer custody battle ensued.

There used to be a cool (Channel 4?) documentary about them, but it got removed from bloody youtube


Add N To (X) – Monster Bobby
[buy Add N To (X) from Mute Records | Amazon.uk]

...................................................................
L'Amour à la Chaîne: what will be the next link in the chain? Leave your suggestions and reasons in the comments.
Jacques Dutronc - L'Amour à la Chaîne > Françoise Hardy - Je Changerais D'Avis > Les 5 Gentlemen – Cara-Lin > Add N To (X) – Monster Bobby > ?

Wasps

When I was little, after being stung by one-too-many wasps, I attempted to justify their existence to myself:

"Wasps are like bees," I thought, "they're yellow and black and they fly around, and if you anger them they will both sting you. But bees make honey, and honey is nice and sweet. What is the purpose of wasps? If bees make honey, then maybe wasps make... Jam!"

That's some pretty deep thinking for a five year old. Yes, I convinced myself that God invented wasps to make jam. I'm not sure if different wasp nests made different flavours. And maybe hornets were responsible for marmalade production.

Look, photographic proof!

One of the best things I got for Christmas was this tres cool present that Verity made for me. It is a cushion replica of an EDP Wasp synthesizer (a "soft-synth", if you will)

[EDP Wasp Soft Synth cushion © Verity Clarkson 2008]

It's a curious synth, the Wasp, with that distinctive (cheap plastic) black and yellow shell. It has one of those touch-sensitive keyboards where your finger completes the circuit and the DCOs spring to life. If you're a bit of a pyromaniac, you could squirt lighter fluid along the keyboard and set fire to it for a rapid upwards arpeggio action (Ann Shenton told us that).



Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Uh Oh, that high-pitched sonic whine is filling me with dread. Look there, at the bottom of the garden, a black and yellow swarm gathering from the trees. BUZZ BUZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Millions of evil black eyes, and every pair is fixed on us. BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. And that's one mighty looking King Wasp heading the deadly swarm, he's got evil intentions and he's spreading them to his army via collective consciousness. BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Eeek! Run for cover...

Add N To (X) - King Wasp
[buy Add N To (X): iTunes | Mute | Amazon]


And now, a tangent.
Recently, on British TV, they've been showing an Oral B advert, and the music is bizarrely reminiscent of King Wasp. Watch and listen.

CAUTION HORSES

Polly is a girl, and Polly has a horse. The horse suffers from depression and is troubled by the voices in its head. The horse is called Blue Monday.

Blue Monday lopes around a windswept paddock to an internal soundtrack of early 80’s Factory Records, as played in 2008 by a bunch Parisian kids on glacial synths, lowwwwww-slung bass and strict, metronomic drums.

It’s Koko Von Napoo.

Now, let’s check those credentials:

• Four young Parisians (3 girls, 1 boy) – CHECK
  
• A love of Factory Records and the sound of crumbling, early 80’s Manchester – CHECK
  
• A name that apparently references a Pre-War Manchester gang: The Napoo (as mentioned in Andrew Davies’ Gangs of Manchester) – CHECK
  
• A name that makes them sound German – CHECK
  

Koko Von Napoo - Polly

[buy Koko Von Napoo from Rough Trade / iTunes]

Now, I had this idea that chevalier was French for cavalier – being that cheval is French for horse, it seemed logical. But I foolishly looked it up. It’s actually French for knight.

But let’s go with my idea anyway… we’ll just imagine it’s a knight on a horse, like this one. Okay?

So, I’m sat there listening to Le Chevalier by Jiji, thinking: that must surely be an intentional pun or in-joke, getting a sweet pop songstress called Jiji (a phonetic mimicry of gee-gee –English slang term for race-horse) to sing a song about a knight (on a horse)… Does this pun work in French? Was someone back there in les années 60’s having a little chuckle as they set the hooves in motion for this record? Am I clutching at straws?

Jiji – Le Chevalier
[this song was re-released on the now deleted compilation Ultra Chicks Vol. 6: Vous Dansez Mademoiselle.  Weirdo Records (USA) have copies apparently...]

Next one out of the horse-box: a slab of avant-hard synth-abuse courtesy of Miss Ann Shenton.

In which our heroine mounts her statuesque, battery-powered steed and summons a choir of heavenly Mellotron-ic beings to lead into battle with an army of evil theremin wielding robots…

Add N To (X) – Ann’s Eveready Equestrian
[buy Add N to (X) from Mute / iTunes]

And we couldn’t do a post about horses without including perhaps the best electronic song ever written about a horse (in our humble opinion). 

Sample lyric:
“Oh glittering horse, you were sold
in a shady shop, on the Edgeware Road”

We give you Simon Bookish.
Everybody scream METAL HORSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Simon Bookish – Metal Horse
[buy Simon Bookish direct from the horses mouth / iTunes]