Polysics
are one of the more known Japanese bands out there, and for many
people, they embody everything Japan: manic, poppy, heavily influenced
by western bands (in this case Devo,) and impossibly weird. Their early
albums were energetic and enjoyable enough, if occasionally taking the
hero worship a bit too far (they have albums called "Neu!" and "Eno,"
and one photo shows them eating a cake that is essentially a Devo hat.)
That said, even at their most emulative, they had such a ridiculous
amount of enthusiasm that it was easy enough to make excuses.
Thing is, a shtick like that is going to have a pretty short life span.
Polysics were going to have to bring a bit more of themselves into the
mix, or risk coming off as a glorified cover band. Much of the more
original material has been hit or miss, even as it's been impossible to
fault their sincerity. And for all it's manic kitchen sink goofiness,
their hyperactive approach can only go so many places: how
many different ways can you think of to sound as playfully intense as
possible before you start looking ridiculous?
That question hasn't been definitively answered, but stepping back from
their history for a second, one thing that's striking about "We Ate The
Machine" is that it's made up of some pretty bizarre constituent
elements. Ironic, plastic 80s New Wave remains the keystone, but
there's other elements that are frankly surprising. It took three or
four listens before I realized how much power metal there was
in the album. Seriously, many of the guitar solos have all kinds of
hair metal flash and wheedly harmonics: the guitars in "Moog Is Love"
alone could keep any wannabe Malmsteen happy for weeks, and that's
without taking the pure 80s hair metal opening into account. Remove the keyboards and yelping vocals and it's pure Motley Crüe (the
video doesn't exactly hurt either, what with the twirling drum sticks and one hand in the air theatrics.)
Which is not to say "We Ate The Machine" has gone all hairspray and
tattoos on us. It's still very much a technopop album, and one trick
that Polysics have kept up their sleeves that practically screams "New
Wave" is the way they Frankenstein things together. It's one thing to
introduce a new idea when the chorus comes along, it's something else
to make it sound like it came from a totally different song. Single "
Pretty Good"
changes shape so drastically it almost gives you whiplash: the whole
thing is so out there it's easy to miss how damned catchy it is. "
Rocket" starts off as video game music and goes into...well, it's difficult to say what the chorus of "Rocket" is, beyond "intense."
And there's the rub: interesting as the album is, it can get to be a
bit too much for one sitting. The greatest band in the world would
still get tiring if they're in your face all the time, and it doesn't
help that the album is so heavily front loaded (everything referenced
in this review thus far is a single, and they're all found in the first
fifteen minutes.) Granted, CDs now tend to be sold as software to be
loaded onto your iPod and played at random, so maybe sequencing wasn't
a big priority when "We Ate The Machine" was put together. But whatever
nit picking one might come up with, it's good to see that Polysics have
not only managed to move out of the shadows of their inspirations a
bit, but come up with some pretty good stuff in the process.
---
Available at Amazon USA as a CD and download.
