I know I don't cover music news here on the A-Z, and I have no plans to start (I do all of the stuff at Japanator) but this is something I wanted to mention.
Sony has released a few clips (media might not work in FireFox...thanks Sony!) from the forth coming Polysics album We Ate the Machine. A couple of them we've already heard, namely "Pretty Good" and "Rocket." There are eight more new clips up as well. I'm not sure what to think of them.
One thing is for sure, Polysics is not the same band they were ten years ago. Obviously there's nothing wrong with that, and in fact I think it's great. All too often I see bands (mostly Japanese for obvious reasons) just churning out album after album of the exact same material, taking no risks and staying away from new territory or sounds. Now, I don't have a lot to go on with these short clips, but it would seem the Polysics has certainly gone far into the clean and pop direction with Machine.
They've done this before. In fact it's a bit of a game among fans to chart the albums out as to what sort of style it is. Punk. Electro. Pop. Whatever. This is certainly going to be a pop record. Even more so than what we've already heard on the two singles. Pop at least in production values. I know that the thing I loved most about early Polysics was the huge amount of noise and distortion on each song. The vocals were often lost in a sea of static and crashing drums. The synths were screaming just as much as Hiro was. It was, to me at least, a brand new form of high energy electro punk new-wave craziness.
What I'm hearing on Machine is not at all crazy, or distorted, or screaming. It's all very buttoned-down and extremely well produced. Extremely clear and honed to a razor sharp edge. It's almost sterile, much like a lot of other electro pop bands out there that try for sonic perfection over emotional noise. The songs also seem to be much more straight forward and easy to hear. By "hear" I mean that you "get" the song right away. It's obvious. Another thing I loved about early Polysics was the it was often a challenge to really "hear" the song. I had to go back over and over, and each time I got something more from it.
Again, it's hard to really get a fair feel for the album from a few short clips. There could easily be a lot more going on than meets the ear. Yet the two singles and their b-sides certainly seem or corroborate my feelings. Polysics is toning it down, dialing it back, and slowing it down. There could be a million reasons for this, and I hope it's nothing to get worried about.
Still...I'm worrying.
[Found via No More Tears No Crying]
4 comments:
Hey - I wandered in from the Polysics comm on LJ. This is a rather interesting post - as a new Poly fan I have to say it's nice to get the point of view of someone who's apparently been into them for a much longer time than I have.
Also, I'm sorry you feel this way about their 'new' sound. I've seen many fans of various ten+ year-old bands cling to the way things were at the beginning - complaining that the music was getting too heavy, or too laid-back, or even "Americanized" (being into J-music yourself, I'm sure you must have encountered this one too).
Personally, I feel a bit privileged as a newbie because I'm discovering it all at the same time ; to me, the chronological gap between NEU and Karate House is only virtual. I can hear the difference, you know. But I don't feel like one is far behind, a relic of a long-lost past, and the other is all I'm left with in the sad, sad present, to put it... dramatically :) I suppose that shields me from feeling like I'm losing something through their evolution.
Anyway, I guess I just wanted to say that I hope you see what is to like in the way they're changing, and that it's not necessarily a bad thing. In any case, it can't be avoided, right?
And thanks for sharing your views, in any case, too.
Yeah, I fully admit that I might be overreacting. I have a certain little box that I want Polysics to fit in, and they've been breaking out of it for some time. That's all on me.
I'm sure that once I hear it that I'll "get it" and love it as much as everything else. At least I hope so!
What I've gathered is that front man hiro has a marked obsession with becoming an "american" rock star. It seems every time they gear up for yet another usa run they tweak the approach. Even with the backing of myspace, they still couldn't achieve the success he so desires here.
So the guy does his market research and realizes that he needs a sonic package that's neatly wrapped with a bow on top. And who can blame him for it, really? I mean, when is the last time you saw an american music video with an under-produced sound? Nirvana maybe?
And I think that's what our hero Hiro is really after. He wants the energy and response of his american audience to match the size and scope of his audience back home, right? I mean, I'm not some ethnocentric ass here who automatically assumes it's all about "U.S." here... Isn't this sort of what he's always saying in interviews and such?
Personally, I still adored the album. I trust Polysics completely, and they deliver the goods. They change it up, and it's always hit or miss. But at the core is a heavy dose of some energized musical magic that never fails to incite a younger, fresher me. If the general response is that this album was too packaged, I have faith that they'll find an alternative route to travel.
But as you see, I'm a bit unfairly biased.
Beau
Hey Beau,
Interesting idea!
Yeah, after I listened to the full album a few times I really did come around to the new sound. It's still the same band, only very clean and polished. I wrote up a review, but I'm still waiting to hear if it's gong to be published elsewhere.
In addition to the US, I'd say they want to be big everywhere. Of course that means a huge push in the UK/US. Getting on those charts is no easy task, and cleaning up their sound is a good first step.
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