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]

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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 > ?

Creepy Crawlies pt.1

Following our (not so) recent post about Wasps, here’s one about Creepy Crawlies, or Bestioles, as the French dictionary has just informed me. So if the thought of little leggy critters makes your skin crawl, take a deep breath and read on with caution.

We’re talking little critters like these two clockwork Horrors*, who were wound-up and let loose in Daniel Miller’s studio full of ancient analogue gadgetry.

After a few days Barry 7 was sent in to try and take some control of the situation. The result: some deeply sinister metal-on-metal musik like this:

Spider and the Flies – Spider and the Flies
[buy Spider and The Flies: iTunes | Mute Bank]

We all know Michel Polnareff is a bit of a strange one – Whenever I try and introduce someone to his music, I like to take them through some of his looks to show the whole package: At the start there was little mod-like urchin Polnareff, serenading with his 12-string guitar… Gradually this mutated into the Pierrot/Jagger/Bowie-hybrid wailing goth-glam opera sounds in a white smock dress and those trademark sunglasses… Somewhere along the way, it appears Michel may have been abducted by the P-Funk Mothership, where a freaky transformation took place. On his return to earth, Polnareff unveiled his new ‘look’: a fright-wigged Bowie-meets-Liberace-meets-Elton John bacofoil ostrich from outer-space…

This one’s from back in those mod-ish days, dressed in a black polar-neck, Polnareff proclaimed himself ‘King of the Ants’
Michel Polnareff – Le Roi De Fourmis
[buy Polnareff: iTunes | Amazon.fr]

Nine years later, he changed his mind (along with his image), and decided he was a fly with a penchant for landing on people’s lips… Mmmm, spread those germs.


Michel Polnareff – La Mouche
[buy Michel Polnareff: iTunes | Amazon.fr]



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*we should also mention that those Horrors have come up trumps with their new album Primary Colours. Goodbye hairspray-goth, hello krautrock-shoegaze.