POLYSICS Album: “Hey Bob, My Friend”

BOOM! EXPLODE! HEART ATTACK HEART ATTACK HEART ATTACK!!! BANG! ZAP! BRAIN BUZZ! EXPLODE! AHHHH!! LASERS!

And there you have it. The best intro I could think of for the Polysics review. I really don't know where to start. So I might as well explain what they look like onstage. First off, they're Japanese. Onstage they all wear radioactivity suits and reflective wrap-around sunglasses. One guy's got a guitar, there's a girl behind the keyboard and another guy playing drums. They'd probably start up their set without warning and then go and play about an hour of non-stop heart attack-inducing music before fainting on the stage.

The Polysics play something maybe best described as surf-math-rock. Imagine early Devo with a thirst for blood. This sounds like they want someone to get hurt. It's got the energy and chord changes of a surf record, but with the rabid and exacting melodies from the guitar and the new wave synths flying past your head at 1000 miles per hour, there's something more scientific going on. They're making rock music dorky again. The pictures of them in the liner notes show them all over the place in their trademark get-ups looking like Godzilla just arrived and they're the scientists here to help stop him, but really they're just here to rock you silly!

"Sunnymaster" is a minute-long intro that starts with any other drum machine until it explodes, literally, and and video game synths beep and buzz for a while and guitars bring it to a raucous conclusion. The whole record sounds like a video game, come to think of it. "Buggie Technica" has a opening guitar crunch banging repeatedly to open the song, but this happens over and over again with a vocoded voice yelling something over it and you don't even think the song will get start and suddenly, BAM! The CD blows up and threatens to take your boom box with it! The song would completely fall apart if it weren't for the surf rock melodies desperately trying to keep this thing on the CD. I'm convinced that if MTV were to get a hold of this, you'd start seeing Polysics music showing up in every extreme sports program you'd see.

Then starts the super-charged enigmatically titled "Plus Chicker." This features the first singing on the disc from guitarist Hiroyuki Hayashi. It's unintelligible with all the noise, and I'm guessing it's Japanese anyway. "Hot Stuff" just continues the flow. Despite the fact that this record is actually a compilation of songs from a few Japanese releases by the Polysics, it flows really well. I was also surprised that a familiar melody popped up on track 8 and I quickly realized they were covering a song by another favorite Japanese band, Pizzicato Five's "Good" from The Sound of Music. Polysic Kayo does her best to recreate the cute cooing of Maki Nomiya, while the music of course differs greatly from P5's as this is much more likely to give you an epileptic fit.

This goes on for an even briefer than it sounds 33 minutes. Just a warning: Don't you ever try driving to this record, as a wreck is more than sure to happen.

This Japanese import takes their cue from Devo, and sustains a punkish energy full of synth warbles and squeaks, as well as smartly-styled pop that always stays on the upbeat. While some of these songs will appear in later releases, the marerial is both inventive and energetic. In fact, it's probably unfair to lump this in the "Devo" category; they've long since made strides to make their sound more frenetic and exciting.

This album is a refreshment from the Japanese Beverage Co. No, all of this does not make sense but, that is the good of it. You have little noises and big ones that just have you scratching and bobbing your head. No one says that this is dancable but, you can still go crazy with it. I find that this would be a great album to drive to a big city and just cruise through the freeways. If you like this checkout the Blood Brothers and/or the Ex Girls.

Along with all of that it is adventous and entertaining. I would have to say this is Japanese Noise at the the top but not the greatest.

Leave it upto the Japanese to make sense of a combination that shouldn't go together. 'Hey Bob My Friend' basically sounds like what would happen if grebo bands like Age Of Chance/Pop Will Eat Itself (or a more percussive Jesus And Mary Chain) had sex with R2D2. Abrasive thrashing guitars meets futuristic robotic bleeps, like guitar chaos meeting the analog noises of Stereolab on speed. The vocals shift from Nina Hagen chants to the playful call and response of Shonen Knife. Holding all of this craziness together is a thumping Joy Division-like backbeat, ensuring that none of this goes wildly astray. At first the sound seems unnerving and quirky, but after a few listens, you begin to recognize the rock intensity and rhythmic sensibility of The Polysics. Frenzied, futuristic, and noisy...but it still speaks the universal language of rock and roll.

totally addictive cd.....

you think usual japanese music is weird.....

polysics is almost scary the first time you hear them, but the second time....addicted. crazy experimental stuff you wouldnt hear in the western hemisphere!