Add Insult To Injury

11/29/2000 1:00 PM, LAUNCH
Ken Micallef

Like the Ventures fueled on steroids and old Kraftwerk and Gary Numan records, Add N To (X) rampage through Farfisa-freaked anthems full of distorted, block-rocking beats and Vocoder treated vocals. Riding waves of circular drums and growling synths, Add N To (X) can't seem to get up and get on with it on Add Insult To Injury, some songs slowly spinning in place like a sleeping top. Tick-tocking toy beats infuse the robotic "B.P. Perino" and garbled washing machines and roly-poly bass and drums mire the muzak of "Incinerator No. 1," while the Devo-inspired "Adding N To (X)" is the band's treatise to man-machine monotony. Critically hailed for earlier albums such as Avant Hard and On The Wires Of Our Nerves, Add N To (X)'s latest simply recalls a soundtrack to some cheesy 1950s horror movie where somebody forgot the monsters.