POLYSICS Album: “Now Is the Time”

The Polysics are insane. At least, they sound that way in "Now Is The Time."

In their sixth album, the Japanese band hurtles through a bunch of wild new-wave rockers that smash through the speakers and flattening resistance, sounding like a hallucinating punk band falling off a cliff. In fact, it's kind of exhausting to listen to even one of their songs.

It opens with the smashing riffs and rapid-fire drums of ",á! ,á! ,á! (Tei! Tei! Tei!)," a song that rapidly tangles itself in a cycling synth and some thunderous basslines, sprinkled with spiralling synth. It's a fun, wonky song, but it's also rather repetitive -- once you've heard the first thirty seconds, you've heard the entire song.

Things improve with the next song "?µ?¢?ç...Ö?· is Android (Shiirakansu Is Android)," a ripping rapid-fire synthpop song punctuated with "Shii-ra-kan-su's ANDRO-OID!" It also sets the tone for the songs that follow -- energetic guitarpop, sizzling rockers with a spacey edge show up in this, like the cheerfully wacky "Monaliza Oh!"

But there are also weirder songs, which push the envelope for pure rock dementa. These include hard-rocking glitchpop, rapid synthpop interspersed with chaotic little noises -- everything from bubbles to wails -- and the baby-voiced Devo-esque pop of "Baby Bias."

I don't really recommed hearing all of "Now Is The Time!" at once -- it's too exhausting to hear all these speed-of-light rockers all at once. But you have to give the Polysics credit -- most bands don't stay this enthusiastic after several albums.

The core of their music is usually guitars and bass, played VERY fast and very energetically, so that you feel like you're being swept just ahead of the rapid-fire punkiness. But they're always festooned with some Devoesque synth -- sometimes in stabs and sometimes in ripples; sometimes colourful and wacky, and sometimes bubbly or bizarre.

And it's not really surprising that the singing and lyrics are every bit as energetic and strange. Some of the lyrics are in Japanese, a spattering in English, and some are just gibberish. Hiroyuki Hayashi wails and roars through the songs with almost manic energy, backed up by the high voices of Kayo and Fumi in some of the songs.

"Now is the Time" suffers from a weak beginning, but rapidly gets its footing in a completely insane, unpredictable punk-pop-noise-electronic collection. Confusing but fun.