album of the week - 3.2

Polysics

1st P / A・D・S・R・M! (remastered)

DECKREC/UK.PROJECT (2009)

why you'll love it:  new wave rockgasm

why you'll hate it:  you're a spud

For my favorite band ever, I sure haven't reviewed a whole lot of Polysics records over the years. I think last year's release has been the only one (can't remember if I did Karate House in 2007 or not). Maybe it's because droning on with biased praise is boring. *After all, all of their albums are absolutely brilliant!

But the new releases of 2009 are beginning to dry up, so here we go...

On the 10th anniversary of their first release, 1st P, we have here a remastered deluxe edition accompanied by the 1999 LP, A・D・S・R・M! The remastering is rather modest, although that is better than the traditional "hurr let's make it louder" approach. Quite frankly, the four songs re-recorded in 2004 from these releases are of much better quality; so much that it's hard to even go back the originals, no matter how cleaned up the tapes are.

That coupled with the opinion that A・D・S・R・M! is their weakest album may give the impression that this is a negative review. That is impossible (please refer to *). 1st P, while short, still packs a punch after all these years. "Buggie Technica", "Plus Chicker", and "Hot Stuff" are still mainstays in their live set ("Modern" regretfully isn't).

New fans looking for a history lesson should research the bands covered here. While Devo has always been an obvious influence, Japanese new wave worship has always been with the band as well. Their musical style wasn't brought into the mix since the last few years, but Polysics has been paying tribute to P-Model's look since day one. Their cover of "Good" by Plastics isn't as well done as Pizzicato Five's treatment, but the A・D・S・R・M! song, "Nice" is one of the best spiritual tributes I've heard.  Devo still gets the biggest name check here. Two Devo covers have been added to this re-release (though they were both performed better on their 1999 live album).

These were the band's only indie releases, and the very next year saw the release of NEU (the greatest album ever made!!!), so it's easy to forget these humble beginnings. It's still a great batch of songs and this is the best condition you'll hear em in.