Poliça are a new band I’ve discovered very recently and they need to be shouted about because their début album “Give You The Ghost” is simply excellent.
Poliça is a band that firmly believes in layered reverb and pitch tuning effects to the vocals. The result is a slightly otherworldly rock experience. Opener “Amongster” is a great example as the guttural guitars play host to a simple rhythm and riff that gets more and more violent as the vocals sheer off the scale with pitch bending and ethereal airiness. The huge rapturous final minute of drum rolls and epic rises are phenomenal and really get the blood pumping. “I See My Mother” is more by the numbers with the bass guitar providing the melody whilst the percussion loosely rumbles around the main beat making everything feel a bit more freeform than it actually is. It’s cleverly put together. “Violent Games” then gets very dark and bumbling with its rolling tom drums and its fantastic looping vocals that use echoes and pitch bending to perfection. It creates a state of disarray that is still followable and groovy but is fierce and dramatic at the same time.
“Dark Star” turns the attention more to groovy synth rock with more of an emphasis on merging the bass and underplayed keyboard beeps to something that feels more 80s than present day. It’s strange because the vocals are so morphed and drenched in effects it takes a few passes to get the lyrics before you can sing along but you still know the tune to hum to. “Form” is the most electronic keyboard based funky track on the album with slightly detuned dance synths slowly playing whilst the bass guitar jazzes out. It’s also the happiest track so far too which is just as well as “The Maker” goes out of its way to use clashes keys to create a lot of minor energy. “Lay Your Cards Out” has this wonderfully trip down beat which works splendidly with the drawn out, almost reversed synths that make up the main chord structure and melody. The vocals here feel more spacious as a result and its like the whole world is in slow mo for four minutes.
“Fist, Teeth, Mouth” is more punchy and rock infested as the bass and drums interplay with each other before the more ethereal “Happy Be Fine” enters with its muddy synths and seedy drum rolls. The whole album has a seedy quality to it – like Soft Cell became a 2012 rock band with a female lead. “Wandering Star” is one of the catchiest tracks on the album which tidies up all the different aspects of this bizarrely created album all together in one neat package before the euphoric “Leading to Death” feels like you’re actually travelling towards the great light with an absolutely memorizing finale. The pushing passion of the instruments really make you freak out.
Poliça’s album will not appeal to everyone. The vocal style is going to either pull you in or put you off. I found it drew me in further to the music which is astounding. A really exciting new band to watch.