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Polysics are a four piece band from Tokyo who have
been around for over ten years, they describe their
music as "Technicolor pogo punk" and to
be fair I totally love it, I can’t get enough
of the bands new album 'We Ate The Machine', the
album is not released until the 29th September but
when that day comes seriously head out and pick
up a copy as you will not be dissapointed, the band
are so much fun and so random, I am quite gutted
that it has taken me this long to hear about the
band as I now feel that I have been missing something
quite brilliant for the past ten years of my life,
but then again I suppose that is what a back catalogue
is for and this bands one will soon be in my collection.
The way the band explain their sound is quite
spot on but I would also like to add that it’s
also quite like the music you would find in some
crazy Japanese computer games or television shows
and it is also extremely poppy so I would add
a few words to their music description and class
the music as "electronic technicolor random
pogo pop punk". Do you remember when The
Mad Capsule Markets took the UK by storm, despite
forming in 1990 it took them until 2001 to take
the UK by storm with their 'OSC DIS' album which
then followed up with backing from some of the
major music magazines in the UK, the Mad Capsule
Markets were ok but they got hyped up for all
the wrong reasons and were never really heard
of in the UK after that album release. Polysics
are so much like the Mad Capsule Markets but so
different at the same time, they are similar because
both bands heavily use synths and computer generated
sounds to make the majority of their music, but
where the Mad Capsule Markets were quite a heavy
punk rock force, Polysics are more of a catchy
poppy band with a punk edge.
The album 'We Ate The Machine' starts with 'Moog
Is Love', and the song sets the pace right from
the start, it opens up with some tinny drumming
and seconds later the bands psychedelic synths
kick in and so does frontman Hiroyuki Hayashi
vocals as clear as the sky on a summer night,
in places some electronic vocal trickery is used
to give the vocals a more robot sounding edge,
Polysics rock when it comes to synths and electronics,
but just listen to the guitar riffs towards the
end of 'Moog Is Love' , they are thick and fast
and would give any guitar god a run for their
money.
Fast paced disco synths open 'Pretty Good', it
sounds like one of those songs that your mum and
dad blast out of the stereo every now again, you
know those 60 rock and roll party songs that sound
ever so cheesy but are so easy to get into and
get your groove along to, this is exactly what
'Pretty Good' sounds like but in a twentieth century
way with fast synths running throughout the song
giving it that disco feel, once again Hiroyuki
Hayashi is let loose on his guitar towards the
middle of the song and executes some riffs that
have a Green Day 'American Idiot' feeling written
all over them.
Over the past ten years kids television programmes
have taken a random turn, gone are the days of
classic programmes like Thomas The Tank Engine,
Postman Pat, Transformers, Power Rangers and all
the other classics and in their place the kids
are forced upon the Teletubbies, In The Night
Garden, The Tweenies and a lot of other random
programmes that seem like they have come from
another planet or been created by someone who
has spent their life on crack as to be fair the
programmes are totally out of this world and quite
spinny, well take a listen to 'Rocket' by Polysics
as the song is totally out of this world and sounds
like something that you would hear on one of these
crazy kids television programmes with the kids
dancing along and shouting all the wrong lyrics
out to the song but enjoying it so much, the only
thing that takes this song back down normality
is the guitar riffs towards the end of the song
which oddly sounds quite like Green Day's 'American
Idiot' again, seriously listen to the song from
1 minute 48 seconds and you will hear exactly
what I am on about, I am guessing Polysics love
Green Day or just love the guitar riffs, let’s
just hope Green Day love them using the riffs.
The album title track 'I Ate The Machine' starts
off with some space age electronic sounds that
sound like a mixture of a futuristic screw driver
noises, mixed with some lasers and a kids squeaky
toy, things like this really do show Polysics
creative edge, they can attempt any sound any
effect and 9 times out of 10 they get it right
and make it a really enjoyable and listenable
experience.
Take a quick listen to 'Boys And Girls' and you
will feel a heavy Mindless Self Indulgence and
euro disco pop influence within the song which
is from the mixture of the synths and the fast
paced lead vocals that sound like they have come
out of a Mindless Self Indulgence Song, but what
makes this song stand out more than Mindless Self
Indulgence is the addition of the really catchy
fast flow female vocals that work along side the
main male vocals.
'Blue Noise' sounds like something out of a computer
game from the 90's something like one of the original
Sonic games or Alex Kidd, maybe it was featured
in one of the games and Polysics have decided
to re master the sound or maybe Polysics just
have a love for creative synthesized madness,
I’m pretty sure the later statement is the
truthful one but still give 'Blue Noise' a listen
it might bring you back to your childhood 16 bit
computer game days, as it sure did me.
The album finishes with 'Dry Or Wet', and the
song has a huge mixture of big synths, big guitar
riffs, duel male and female crossover vocals,
scary sounding robotic vocals and an overall sound/feel
that makes you want to dance your feet away and
spin around at a hundred miles per hour to enjoy
the last 3 minutes or so of a perfect ending to
an outstanding album.
Polysics break all the rules when it comes to
making music, infact they don’t seem to
have any rules apart from to be as random as possible
and be able to give everyone a good time including
themselves and that is exactly what they have
achieved, they have crammed so much into their
music and have come up with such a fast upbeat
sound that skims across many different music genres
which helps give Polysics that cross over feel
which is bound to give them a massive fan base
and see fans from different genres unite to have
a good time at future Polysics shows, I love Polysics
and think you will to, seriously make sure you
check this band out, you wont be dissapointed.
5/5
Review by Trigger |
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| Band
Members |
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Hayashi (Hiro) (Voice, Guitar,
Programming)
Kayo (Synthesizer, Vocals, Guitar,
Vocoder)
Fumi (Bass, Vocals, Synthesizer)
Yano (Drums) |
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| Track
Listing |
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1. Moog Is Love
2. Pretty Good
3. Rocket
4. I Ate The machine
5. DNA Junction
6. Kagayake
7. Pony & Lion
8. Arigato
9. Irotokage
10. Mind Your Head
11. Digital Coffee
12. Boys & Girls
13. Blue Noise
14. Dry Or Wet |
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| Band
Related Links |
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| Review
Score Code |
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- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
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