Artist: Add n to (x)
Title: Little Black Rocks in the Sun
Format: 10" Single
Label: Mute
Catalogue Number: 10mute217
Year of Release: 1998
Ltd Edition of 1000
This record is one huge notable feature. Hopefully these pictures have come out OK, and you can see, first of all, the foldout sleeve:
Closed:
 |
Open:
 |
Don’t know how readable the gumpf in the middle is, but if you can't read it, try making up a science fiction short story, and incorporate the names of a few Add n to (x) tracks… it'll be much the same. |
Then look at the 10" itself. Only the gold-etched Table of the Elements album I've got, and the recently purchased 5" Melt Banana/Fantomas single, match this for cool slabs of plastic:
 |
(I realised the schoolboy error of placing the record on that throw only after taking the shot, it's now helluva dusty.) Whatshisface from Stereolab is back on this one, doing various drum related things. |
Finally, there are three tracks on the B-side that aren't on the CD, and, for putting extra tracks on vinyl releases, as any band may care to note, you get immediate bonus points and an extra life. It doesn't matter if they're awful; it's the thought that counts.
If you want a positive spin on this record, then read Ned Raggett's review here, but here's my view:
It's boring. It has nothing do with the length of it, I have Namlook albums that spread themselves over 2CDs, so 11 minutes is barely a gnat's chuff. I have the attention span, y'know.
It's just dull. The beats are dull, the synths we've heard before, "What, a vocodered vocal? You don't say!". There's a sloppy bit of drum'n'bass and it ends with some half-hearted noise that Merzbow wouldn't even fall asleep to. I've listened through to it about 5 times in the last week, trying to like it, but I just can't work up the enthusiasm. It reminds me most of a long Can track, in that they often clobbered together their longer stuff from several sessions. Whereas Can came up with the classics Yoo Doo Right and Halleluhwah, Add n to (x) did this. Boring, boring, boring.
And then there's the B-sides. Slightly amusing, throwaway, spoken word, robot voice things. The first one has a high pitched voice and a low pitched voice arguing over who's got the best machine (probably a penis joke). The second sings a classical refrain (badly) that I can’t place. The third is best, espousing the Add n to (x) philosophy, and contains the disturbingly beautiful line "You can't keep the music out, but you can stop the air getting in". Nice.
Plug Me In next, then the Add n to(x) roadshow finishes.
