Add N to (X) - ＂Take Me to Your Leader＂

OCT 07 2002 · 12:00

Add N to (X) - ＂Take Me to Your Leader＂ (2002) Director: Add N to (X) (band-directed) Era: Early 2000s UK Electroclash / Analog Revival (2002) - The final creative chapter of Add N to (X), coinciding with their fifth and last album 'Loud Like Nature' on Mute Records, at the peak of the electroclash moment they helped pioneer. As the final music video produced by a band who helped define UK experimental electronica across nearly a decade, 'Take Me to Your Leader' holds strong archival significance. Its band-directed, location-shot production represents an important document of DIY visual culture within the Mute Records ecosystem. The video captures Add N to (X) at a transitional, valedictory moment, accessible yet uncompromised, and serves as a time capsule for the 2002 electroclash moment and the broader analog synthesizer revival that the band had long championed. Context: Released in October 2002 as the lead single from Add N to (X)'s fifth and final album 'Loud Like Nature' on Mute Records, 'Take Me to Your Leader' arrived at the height of the electroclash movement, a moment when critics noted the band had pre-dated and helped shape the very genre surging around them. The band, founded in London in 1994 as fervent advocates of vintage analog synthesis against the rise of 'coffee table electronic music,' were in a transitional phase: Ann Shenton would depart before the subsequent US tour, and the group disbanded in 2003. The video's location shoot in the arid Spanish landscape of Almeria, famous as a spaghetti western filming site, and its stripped-back, band-directed production aesthetic reflected both the group's DIY ethos and the rawer, more accessible sonic direction of their final album. Director notes: The 'Take Me to Your Leader' video was directed by the band themselves and produced by Sam Brown. It was shot on location in Almeria, southern Spain, and was included as a data file (addntox.mpg, runtime 3:38, dimensions 384x288) on the enhanced CD single released 7 October 2002 on Mute Records (catalog: CDMUTE278). Contemporary reviews described the video as departing from the band's earlier sexually provocative clip style, opening with band members appearing to lie dead on coastal cliffs. The single served as the lead promotional video for their fifth and final album 'Loud Like Nature' (Mute, 2002).