NO Japanese band pops up in York in an eternity, then two come along in succession. First it was surf trio The 5,6.7.8's on August 20, and one month later, Polysics follow them into Fibbers on Monday (20th).

"Wahey! They're the Japanese equivalent of Devo, right down to the yellow jumpsuits," suggests Fibbers boss Tim Hornsby. "Mix in the aggression of The Boredoms, a bit of Dead Kennedys energy and Man Or Astroman moodiness, and they play at 1000mph from the very start."

Signed to Asian Man Records, Polysics are Hiroyuki Hayashi (guitar, voice, programming), Kayo (synthesiser, Vocoder, vocals) and Junichi Sugai (drums), who add up to raging guitar music with mad electronic synth sounds and a crazy female singer. Let's call it Japanese New Wave Electro Punk.

No less curious is the collision of Electric Soft Parade and British Sea Power members in Brakes, Wednesday's headliners. "Quite how tin-helmeted British Sea Power piano-man/percussionist Eamon and the White brothers, Tom and Alex - The Electric Soft Parade, basically - got together is a mystery to us," confesses Tim.

Debut single Pick Up The Phone, released on Monday, lasts all of 26 seconds - an epic by comparison with support track Cheney, whose running time is all of ten seconds.

Updated: 16:20 Thursday, September 16, 2004