Add Insult to Injury
"There is no past and there is no future," says Add N to (X)'s Barry Smith. "It's just what happens when you turn the machine on." Time and space do have a way of collapsing when the trio switch on their ancient synths. On their third outing, quickstepping space-age robo-bachelor pad music ("Adding N to X"), fuzzed-up funk ("Incinerator No. 1"), and even fuzzier butt rock ("Brothel Charge") all share the same stage with the utmost civility. The mindless brilliance of "Monster Bobby" (think Steam's "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye") somehow seems to fit on the same record as the solemn electro-blues of "B.P. Perino" and the epic and medieval closing of the funereal "The Regent Is Dead." In the teeming nest of imitators that is rock music in the year 2000, it's nice to be able to say that the world can take refuge in Add N to (X)'s unique shtick: a future view cobbled out of the past, a nostalgia for a time that never quite was.--Bob Michaels