Pitchfork

There was a time when I sneered at analog purists. Tucked away in my room, with my computer, CD player, and digital Casio keyboard, I laughed at the fools who wasted their cash on fuzzy-sounding crap that can be almost perfectly replicated by software. I would chuckle to myself whenever I saw some poor sap dropping a grand on a vintage keyboard. After all, for a mere 200 smackeroos, all the sounds on that big, bulky keyboard, along with many others, can be compacted onto a small, friendly CD-ROM.

This summer, all that changed. I was at a Guitar Center in New Jersey, and I spotted a compact, odd-looking keyboard from across the room. That day, I fell in love with a 1985 Korg Poly-800, a bizarre digital-analog hybrid made immensely popular by its powerful circuitry and affordable price. That, and the pitch bend joystick. Mmmmm...

As soon as I brought my new love object home, I immediately understood the appeal of analog, especially as it relates to the creation of bizarre, quirky sounds. Something about knob-twiddling, or even compulsive button-pushing, just seems much more conducive to creative sound creation than sitting in front of a computer and clicking repeatedly.

If you don't believe me, check out Add N to (X)'s debut album, On the Wires of Our Nerves, or to a lesser extent, their second album, Avant Hard. On these two albums, especially the former, the three members of Add N to (X) seemed to have a complete grasp over the infinite orgasmic joy of the analog synthesizer. On these albums, abrasive, insane sounds were extracted from a variety of analog synth sources, making for some of the damned coolest electronic music to grace the 1990s.

Unfortunately, the appeal of the analog synthesizer, like so many other toys, can't last forever. There are only so many parameters that can be edited, so many filters that can be applied, and so many oscillators that can be, uh, oscillated, before the newness wears off, and you find yourself seeking out "new directions." Uh-oh.

Add Insult to Injury is the first Add N to (X) record to sound in the least bit forced. On both of their previous records, the plethora of amazing sounds incorporated, combined with some completely crazy "songwriting," made for a truly exciting listen. Here, we see the group at a loss for new ideas and recycling strikingly similar melodies, sounds, and song structures over the course of 12 tracks.

Add Insult to Injury's greatest weakness comes with the formula which seems to have generated about 1/3 of the songs on the album-- a vaguely surfish bassline, drums that would sound at home in cheesy 70's soundtracks, and sadly ambiguous synthesizer sounds. Yes, it's a cute formula, and it's in some ways more accessible than Add N to (X)'s earlier works. But there is a huge structural problem with this formula: by applying the same bass and drum backbone to slightly different songs, the awesome analog synthesizer noises that once constituted the bread and butter of the group's sound now seem to float aimlessly over the song, resulting in a disjointed mess.

Despite this giant flaw, Add Insult to Injury does have a few exceptional moments. The funky "Pokerole" is one of the finest songs the group has penned, as is the album's single, the Bruce Haack-esque "Plug Me In." The album's closing track, "The Regent is Dead," is also pretty cool, utilizing a fucked-up analog marching band sound and some high-pitched, squelching blasts of pure analog joy.

So it turns out that Add Insult to Injury may be a more apt title than the group had planned. For those of you disappointed by Avant Hard, this record may very well be the final straw. It's sad to hear a group that once had so much potential descend on a slippery slope towards mediocrity. Thus, Add Insult to Injury serves as a disappointing reminder that sounding cool can only get you so far.