This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
U.K. synthesizer abusers Add N to (X) have spent years terrorizing their instruments to earn the reputation as one of the harder, creepier and freakier electronic outfits on this or any other planet. (Case in point: The cover of one album featured a bloody surgical photo of one member having a keyboard inserted into — or removed from — her torso.)
Well, it seems they’ve decided to take it easy on their machines this time out. While this fourth full-length still rocks out in a Jon Spencer-spliced-with-Kraftwerk kinda way — just check out the blazing noise-punk of Brothel Charge or the squishy psychosis of Hit for Cheese — for the most part, this hour-long affair doesn’t seem nearly as dark as previous efforts. The Vocoderized You Must Create, for instance, is a head-nodding groove; Kingdom of Shades boasts a propulsive go-go beat and handclaps; and the stadium-rock boogie-stomp of Monster Bobby is nothing short of a paranoid-android reworking of Gary Glitter. Just call it Rock ’n’ Roll Version 2.0.
