Perhaps it's just subconscious word association, but there's something very scientific about the way all their punk rock sounds fit together. It's all precision timed, monstrously fast guitar riffs and staccato vocals that most bands could probably only manage at half speed.

And with a twelve track album that lasts less than half an hour, it doesn't take a mathematician to work out that they don't waste notes. Opening track Action Action Action Action Action probably takes longer to spell out than its forty-two second duration.

Second track, Less Than Three, is probably the most familiar song to those who have been following the band for a while (this may be the band's first album, but they've been one of Glasgow's favourite wee bands for quite a while and even played the NME Stage at last year's T In The Park). The vocals are so fast that it's hard to pick up what they're singing about, but with a chorus that goes "the keys make less than three", well, it seems this track has something to do with making a sideways heart on a computer. Cunning.

Roaring through everything at a hundred miles an hour, if you slowed them down then We Are The Physics might sound like a combination of early Futureheads (especially in the vocal arrangements) and Franz Ferdinand (in the guitar riffs and the drums, most notably in Action Action Action Action Action).

Sometimes their permanently-stuck-on-hyper-speed sound makes them come across as a little samey, and with its constant intensity, it can be a bit of a relief reaching We Are The Physics Are OK At Music's half hour conclusion. Maybe it's that their place in music is to be a poppy band for punk bands (who can handle the velocity), rather than a punky band for pop fans. If you played it back to back with a Belle & Sebastian album, for example, there's a chance you may go in to that medical shock thing that happens when people fall in to icy lakes.

They are clever and they do have a pretty unmistakable sound, but as they rattle through to alphabet on Fear Of Words, use unnerving vocal effects on CYT #1 and shriek "this is not a duplicate" on Duplicates, well, We Are Physics Are OK At Music really ought to carry a health warning and a recommended dosage.

Listening to the whole thing at once is definitely not for the faint hearted, and we reckon for the time being at least, We Are The Physics are going to have to accept being a niche band that many will champion as heroes, but are simply too much for most people to take in.

  share with:  Facebook | Digg | other sites