Polyrock - Above the Fruited Plain

Name: Polyrock
Album Above the Fruited Plains (EP)
Year: 1982
Style: New Wave
Similar Bands: Simple Minds, Devo, Oingo Boingo, Haircut 100, the Fixx, A Flock of Seagulls, Phillip Glass, Martha & The Muffins, Pylon
One-Word Review: Cold Synthetic Emotions
Based Out Of: NYC, NY
Label: PVC, Cachalot Records, Jem Records

 Cover, Record

Back, Record

Above the Fruited Plain (1982)

1. Working On My Love 4:40
2. Call of the Wild 5:50 /
3. Chains of Iron 4:26
4. Broken China 3:35
5. Indian Song 5:14

Album Rating (1-10): 8.0

Members & Other Bands:

• Billy Robertson - Writer, Guitar, Vox, Producer (Model Citizens, 9 Ways to Sunday)
• Cathy Oblasney - Keys, Vox (9 Ways to Sunday)
• Lenny Aaron - Keys, Marimba
• Curt Cosentino - Keys
• Joey Yannece - Drums, Percussion
• Bobby Nathan - Engineer, Marimba
• Gavin Mulligan - Photos
• Robert Beizer - Electric Bass
• Brendan McCabe - Live Sound
• Mark Sosik - Live Sound
• Joanne Georgio - @ Sound Advice
• Eric Dufaure - @ Sound Advice
• Peter Leak - Mgmt
• Theresa Levy - Mgmt

Unknown-ness: Never heard of them. But I like the color scheme of the name/logo/artwork. The simple empty space denotes a cold, efficient potential sound. The band photo shows them as cool, college age new wave kids.

Album Review: This is the final produced record from Polyrock, not produced by Phillip Glass as their debut full length was. It has a pulsating, cold, minimalist sound to it, with bright synthesizers (three keyboards assigned to three members). Comparisons to Brian Eno &  Talking Heads seemed to follow them while they were around, but don't necessary hold true for this release, as it is more synthetic Krautrock. A bit of the jittery keyboards/synth xylophone in "Call of the Wild" remind me of a typical Oingo Boingo bass line, and it is sung by Cathy Oblasney, which was still somewhat rare for the period of electro bands.

Stand Out Track: Working On My Love

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