Album Review
Polysics - We Ate The MachinePolysics - We Ate The Machine

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
 Band Members
Polysics - Band
Hayashi (Hiro) (Voice, Guitar, Programming)
Kayo (Synthesizer, Vocals, Guitar, Vocoder)
Fumi (Bass, Vocals, Synthesizer)
Yano (Drums)
 Track Listing
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
 Band Related Links
Polysics Myspace
Polysics Official Website
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?