Add N To (X): Avant Hard

When a band chooses to place vintage synthesizers at the fore of its sound, it risks residing in the long shadow of numerous forebears, most notably such Krautrock legends as Neu! and Kraftwerk. Add N To (X) seems to relish the idea, steeping itself in the rhetoric of the man-versus-machine conflict and describing its music as "avant hard," which is as fitting a description as any and a fine title for its second album. Many of the songs on Avant Hard consist of cold robot-funk riffs repeated with little variation, but within this strict structure, the album rarely gets redundant. "Metal Fingers In My Body," the album's centerpiece, is oddly sexy and danceable thanks to its twisting riff, Vocoder-enhanced vocals, and great live drumming by The High Llamas' Rob Allum. "Robot New York" is a fine, atmospheric track, with a warm buzz amid the chilly overtones, while "Skills" hearkens back to '60s go-go music. Add N To (X) is reminiscent of everything from the aforementioned Krautrock to video-game themes to early new wave to prog-rock, but the resulting sound is uniquely its own. Excessive hype has enveloped Add N To (X) in the last year, but for the most part, the group's work warrants the praise.