POLYSICS Album: “Neu”

Polysics is perhaps the future of punk rock. They're keeping it interesting. Their version of 'making it interesting' isn't adding lame acoustic breakdowns, or emo whning. The drums thump, pound and bludgeon along with the drum machine, as the guitars saw and maul everything in their path. Synths and keyboarda bound, as do male and female vocals (vocoded and relatively normal). I guess there are a lot of comparisons to Devo. But Devo always was punk rock to me... this is something completely new. In the real spirit of punk. But you will hear more than a few echoes of the said band (and other 70's punk), along with some surf and heavier influences (maybe Big Black or Wire?). In short, I liked this album more than 'Hey! Bob! My Friend'. It rocks much harder, and is overflowing with energy. New wave kids might like this CD, as well.

Hard to believe it's been two years since Polysics unleashed their Stateside debut, Hey! Bob! My Friend!, but their triumphant return couldn't have come at a better time. Released to critical fanfare (particularly from your pals at Pitchfork) but criminally overlooked by the indie masses, Hey! Bob! hit just ahead of the cusp of the 80s resurgence-- roughly a year before the genres the band holds so dear (new-wave, no-wave, electro) were embraced by every hipster with a gaggle of Contortions records and a jones for hot-pink. A shame, too, as that record's brilliantly unhinged Devo-via-Japanoise deconstructionist ditties are still head and shoulders above most of the art-punk flotsam that's been released since.

Intent to stay one full step ahead of the rest of the world-- or more likely just too hyper to sit still-- Polysics have forged ahead with Neu, now rocking a style one might describe as "abrasive electronic post-punk." The influence of the record's namesake is conspicuously absent this time around (it was only mildly detectable on the last record, with the exception of some distinctly motorik drumming); the band has instead opted to expose more of its no-wave roots: Neu hiccups and jerks in a manner more consistent with Polysics' U.S. contemporaries than any of avant-prog/psych-rock shredders more commonly associated with their homeland. In fact, tracks like the dizzying "MS-17" and the completely ballistic guitar frenzy of "Urge On!" place them in the same ballpark as Williamsburg's current cream-of-the-crop.

More than any other current act, Polysics display not just the desire, but also the deranged nervous energy and raw talent, to inherit the spaz-rock throne left vacant by 90s Moog-core heroes (and fellow Devo enthusiasts) Brainiac. "Xct"'s bizarre synth squiggles, vocoder interjections, and delirious vocalizations conjure the ghost of the dearly departed Timmy Taylor, while "X-Rays (This is My Life)" absolutely nails that familiar Brainiac hip-shake groove.

But Polysics aren't leaving without turning their own unique signatures into trademarks. "Making Sense", all preening vocals and "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)"-style synths, is Neu's poppiest highlight: with radioactive blurts and choppy digibeat accents taking its pummeling drum fills and overdriven guitar riffs hostage, it updates and reinvents the brightest moments of the New Romantic era with more charisma and creativity than any club full of electroclashing fashionista goons could ever hope to. And "What", the album's sole downtempo track, sits on a laid-back groove encrusted with familiar vocodered vocals, providing a brief abeyance from the rest of the album's raving-mad paroxysms.

Despite this record's spazcore conviction-- the antithesis of traditional, hipster-defined "cool"-- Neu rages and rants in total style. Today's musical climate is far more hospitable toward this kind of rampant, maniacal depravity, and with the album's beefed-up, more varied, and generally more rock nature updating Hey! Bob!'s nerdy new-wavisms, Polysics are destined for the top of the neo-no-wave heap. Here's hoping Neu won't go unnoticed.

-Brad Hurst, September 5th, 2003