Avant Hard

NME - 9 out of 10 - "...the best speaker-shudderingly rock album you'll hear this year....they now control the energy which surges throughtheir machines (and, no doubt, their veins) with masterful aplomb and new-found grace..." Mojo - Ranked #40 in Mojo Magazine's "Best of 1999" Melody Maker - 3 1/2 stars out of 5 - "This is such a fun album. Forget all the reservations you may have about electronica being a foreboding, cold and clinical music....[AVANT HARD] is violent, sporadic, ridiculous and sometimes very, very sexy..." Mojo - "...AVANT HARD is a surreal combination of 70's film music, 80's electronic strangeness and 90's anything-goes experimentation. As it says on the cover, 'A new heart to analogue.' Indeed." Q - 3 Stars - Good - "...No matter how many analogue synthesizer croaks or sample cut-ups they make, there's always a two-drumkit flail [and]...a rending bassline, favouring colon-quivering sub-frequencies. The trio always have melody in their madness..." Mojo (1/00, p.30) - Ranked #40 in Mojo Magazine's "Best of 1999" Mojo (5/99, p.107) - "...AVANT HARD is a surreal combination of 70's film music, 80's electronic strangeness and 90's anything-goes experimentation. As it says on the cover, 'A new heart to analogue.' Indeed." Q (6/99 p.100) - 3 Stars - Good - "...No matter how many analogue synthesizer croaks or sample cut-ups they make, there's always a two-drumkit flail [and]...a rending bassline, favouring colon-quivering sub-frequencies. The trio always have melody in their madness..." NME (4/17/99, p.39) - 9 out of 10 - "...the best speaker-shudderingly rock album you'll hear this year....they now control the energy which surges throughtheir machines (and, no doubt, their veins) with masterful aplomb and new-found grace..." Melody Maker (4/17/99, p.38) - 3 1/2 stars out of 5 - "This is such a fun album. Forget all the reservations you may have about electronica being a foreboding, cold and clinical music....[AVANT HARD] is violent, sporadic, ridiculous and sometimes very, very sexy..."

If you ever doubted the lascivious intent of Sheffield's Add N To X, the title of their third album lays it out explicitly. Coming ever closer to the ultimate biomechanical coupling of (wo)man and machine, the group verses synthesized seductions in the mechanical language of love with ripping theremin warble, live percussion, and atom-age melodies. As evidenced by the video for the fabulously cyber-sleazy single, "Metal Fingers In My Body", which features an animated nymphet and a randy robot doing the deed, it's clear that Add N To X has certain prurient amusements in mind.
AVANT HARD trots out one lewd groove after another, with a single-mindedness that makes these cybersexual pursuits entertaining rather than perverse. Add N To X cruises for wares on the streets of "Robot New York" and fantasises about tantric positions even the Kama Sutra must have overlooked on the aggressive "Buckminster Fuller". The down n' dirty percolations of "Fyuz" suggest that Barry Smith, Ann Shenton, and Steven Claydon all have volumes of POPULAR MECHANICS stashed under their mattresses. What a curious crew.|