POZI
POZI are are trio of Drums, Violin and Bass tackling bold subject matter with frantic and frenetic nervous energy, recalling post-punk bands from PiL to Devo and Television.
POZI are are trio of Drums, Violin and Bass tackling bold subject matter with frantic and frenetic nervous energy, recalling post-punk bands from PiL to Devo and Television.
Pozi are the sort of band to tackle the creative cycle of deconstruction and rebuilding with relish. Second album Smiling Pools – released by PRAH Recordings on 19th May 2023 – is testament to that. An LP that sees them at their most expansive yet, it follows a gradual swelling of their sound across two EPs proceeding the urgent, self-enforced minimalism of their debut album PZ1 in 2019.
The trio of Toby Burroughs, Rosa Brook, and Tom Jones quickly established something of a foundational template on that first album: a hyper-skeletal sound palette of drums, bass and three distinct vocals disrupted by Rosa’s churning violins, from which emerged biting social observations and political angst – debut single and angry retort to the 2017 Grenfell tragedy KCTMO still takes pride of place in their live set.
These hallmarks haven’t fully gone away over time – as seen on the bristling, frenetic 176 EP and the title track of 2021’s Typing 12” – but from that urgent energy there has emerged greater confidence and a playful desire to push further out from the loose genre tag of post-punk they were initially saddled with.
“We want our music to evoke a feeling and emotion rather than just being a commentary on something” says Tom. “It’s not our goal to totally embrace and restrict ourselves within a genre. I feel that the tracks on Smiling Pools demonstrate that we’re taking our music to a different place and we want to bring the listener along on that journey.”
That journey’s latest stop sees the trio leaning into more electronic and dance-led influences, their formerly surging bass lines often replaced by a slower, more rhythmic playing – drummer Toby cites the influence of Jungle and drum & bass in particular in the way that it’s informed his sense of groove, while more evocative influences are drawn from the space, energy and tension that comes from various strands of dance music.
Elsewhere, Rosa, pushes her violin’s dexterity to new limits, putting it through MIDI converters and synths to morph it beyond all recognition, most notably on the shimmering kosmiche of the shadowy late-night evoking ‘M6 Toll’. ‘What You Came For’ and ‘Heavenly’, meanwhile, enjoy a dubby spaciousness, contrasting with the tight, martial rhythms and euphoric propulsion on ‘Pest Control’ – although even here there is a certain weightlessness in its soaring strings that open new breathing space within the Pozi soundscape.
It speaks to a more hopeful perspective overall on Smiling Pools. After a while, anger and fear can only take you so far, and on this second LP Pozi look for solutions, pull back from continuously lambasting the parlous state of the country and instead “paint a hopeful picture of what our fate could be.” This resolve was first previewed in lead-off single ‘Slightly Shaking Cells’, a track about “the kind of immortality you can create if you believe in your own strength”. The likes of ‘Faulty Receiver’ and ‘Somnambulance’, too, have a dusting of optimism that juxtaposes with some of the more monochrome workouts on the album.
Ultimately the divergence of Smiling Pools has resulted from greater experimentation in the studio. Producer Shuta Shinoda’s motorbike was recorded for the start of ‘24 Deliveroo’, and ‘Shut Up’ germinated when Brook started hitting a bundle of sticks against her violin strings that she’d found lying around. A number of collaborators also contributed to the album’s textures, with Mathias Arrignon contributing a collage of environmental recordings in “Somnambulance” and Island Girl adding spoons to ‘What You Came For’.
A distinct element of Smiling Pools, the additional layers of found sound and foley-like percussion create a simmering sonic carpet underneath the chugging arrangements on tracks such as ‘Through The Door’ and ‘M6 Toll’. These are met with electronic samples woven through the album by violinist Rosa and drummer Toby, resulting in a surreal mixture of the organic and synthetic. This method of approaching the studio as an instrument to be played with results in an album crackling with individuality.
With such a knotty collection of atmospheres, emotions, and textures at play here, it’s no surprise that the group cite a diverse set of influences such as British funk group Cymande, Czech experimental violinist and vocalist Iva Bittová, Sudan Archives, Chris & Cosey, as well as post-pop peers Mermaid Chunky and Uh. It’s telling that the group point to “mystery” as another emotional tenor that Smiling Pools strikes. Lyrics fuse both the day-to-day and the strange: from the pub, to the M6, to takeaways, and the 90’s thriller Basic Instinct, as well as Boudica and a gothically-unnerving car journey.
The title Smiling Pools comes from a palm sized, aqua blue, translucent plate Rosa found in a charity shop in Edinburgh. Drawn to the plate’s image of a tranquil pool surrounded with animals (and also to its name ‘Green Briar Smiling Pool 1982’), the album title was decided upon. Much like the pool, this album contains mysterious multitudes and doesn’t give up its secrets easily – is swampy, rich, and – like Rosa’s discovery – based around creative fortuity. It’s a natural leap, or deeper dive, from what came before.