Posted on August 11, 2009 - by Mark Zonda

It’s so cold in Polynya

Many persons still believe that Frankenstein was the name of the creature, not the creator. They’re wrong. An artist’s creature is able to catch the gist of our inner secrets, and once we provide him legs is able to walks on his own and take’em away. Artists can only be awared of their path and try to catch their traces. That’s what lead Dr. Frank to Polynia, the seas of the North Pole.In this case the cool name of Polynya is dealing with a band of Carrboro, North Carolina, sharing with the world their first album called “Crop Rotation”. The album is a mix of analogic sounds, samples and keyboards, leaded by he/she good balance of vocals. While songs are a catchy re-re-reinterpretations of modern pop and psycadelia, songs are usually ok, and only lack of better mxing and editing.

A producer would be the top, but not anyone can handle it, so I guess that “Crop” it’s a good compromise for a very scrupulous scientist with the urge of following its creative needs before it disappear beyond the orizon. Synths are leading the way on the opening track “Ribbon Dragons”, a nice pop symphony with interesting percussions and a nice guitar riff, while “People in pictures” shows the band is cleaver enough to experiment different moods and musical situations. A really nice tune, it could perfectly suite a very cool japanimation or a performance at “12″ Bar as well.

My favourite track of the album, breaking from its radiophonic nature to a sonic distortion half the way of the song. Japanimation… Dragons… are we dealing with real life? Hell no! And“Fan fiction”, like a grown up Barret, is here to prove it! “Tightrope Walker” and “Fields” are quite too predictable and ordinary, falling into the easy temptation of recycling for the tracks the same musical structures and trics. Maybe this is one of the circumstances where leave out is far way better than fill in, and the pastice of keyboards and guitar’s arpeggio seems not to properly fit in the blend. Yet againg, a good producer would do miracles, also in the recording process (sounds sometimes exceed the saturation).

“Orlando” and “Calico” would be an engaging tracks for “Blonde Redhead” or “Asobi Seksu”: not bad at all, nice song! If we could easily foget “Mobile” with the triumphal drums of “Tidepool” it’s luckily time for an… “Housequake”! “The way out at last”. At last. Reaching out to catch the monster is always the most exciting and noble part of the journey. Don’t let it rush away!  Polyinya… definetly a cool place to be on the chart. We’ll work on technique and feelings along the way to the second album.

Polynia – “Tidepool”

Waiting for our sight:

• What Will Replace MTV? (15)
• Our last year of independent? (7)
• Funny Little Bunny (6)
• Christmas Indie Ep from Japan (6)
• Alice Nine (5)