Pozi announce new EP; share single and video
POZI ANNOUNCE NEW EP – 176 RELEASED 8TH MAY ON PRAH RECORDINGSSTREAM / WATCH LEAD SINGLE “WHITEWASHING” NOW
POZI’S SPRING / SUMMER TOURDATES POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
Less than twelve months since the release of debut album PZ1, London group POZI return with a brand new EP on 8th May via PRAH Recordings
176 boasts five new tracks written and recorded over a fruitful five days at PRAH Studios, Margate. The band took a more expansive approach to the composition process, taking inspiration from the spatial and rhythmic sonics of electronic music and blending it with their existing unique sonic palette of drums, bass, violin, vocals…and no guitars.
Today, Pozi share lead single “Whitewashing” with an animated music video that brings to life the theme of the song: being cornered on a motorway journey with an old friend, feeling trapped and uncomfortable in the passenger seat as they unexpectedly try to impose their bigoted views upon you.
“We wanted to start fully utilising Rosa’s voice as, adjacent to the other vocals, it really adds another layer to our music. Much of the jamming sessions were spent working around a way to weave this into the sound we’d already created,” explains vocalist / drummer Toby Burroughs. “As we’re all singers and writers, if someone has something that they want to say in a song, it’s great for us to be able to share the lead vocal around.”Taking its title from the eponymous London bus route that runs from Penge to Tottenham Court Road, 176 contains themes of paranoia, social anxiety, jealousy and the accompanying nightmares these can create. As Toby explains: “All five songs have quite grim, dark subject matter. Once we’d started exploring that paranoid, angsty kind of path, the floodgates seemed to open and we ran with it”Brexit and the recent general election casts a long shadow over the EP: title track “176” finds the narrator sat on the top deck of the 176, feeling alienated from his surroundings and shell-shocked at the public’s decision to vote in favour of Brexit, whilst “While You Wait” is written from the perspective of a dog recalling happier times rolling in fields, as it waits to be put down at the veterinary surgery – penned while the UK waited to leave the EU, the metaphor couldn’t be clearer.
Elsewhere, “40 faces” builds on a Morricone-esque bass riff to depict a jealous human waiting at home, tormenting themselves with images of what their partner might be up to without them. “The Nightmare” employs jarring call and response-style vocals to construct a sonically disorientating sound, creating a feeling similar to how you might feel after waking from a panic stricken bad dream or the anxiety you feel when trapped in an unnerving social situation.
POZI 176 EP tracklistingWhitewashing176The Nightmare40 FacesWhile You Wait
About Pozi
Pozi come steeped in the lineage of the very best weirdo British indie pop. The trio of drummer/vocalist Burroughs, violinist/vocalist Rosa Brook and bassist/vocalist Tom Jones have a skittish, restless energy.Despite drawing on influences such as Devo, Wire and Television, there are no guitars on PZ1 and the space afforded by the lack of this potentially domineering component is refreshing. Instead, there’s Brook’s violin that by turn swells and stresses, either buoying proceedings along or collapsing them into discord. Jones’ rough, scruffy basslines hold each song tightly together as all great bassists should do. Then there’s Burroughs’ sparsely-filled but frantically driven rhythmic repetition and his capital city yelp, words tumbling out as though desperately trying to get out of the way of the ones behind.In addition to gambling addiction and debt, lyrical subjects range from the Grenfell Tower tragedy of 2017 to Chinese human rights transgressions to smartphone addition and poor mental health provision, Each are unpacked vividly. Burroughs is a colourful orator yet also direct and raw in his response to such sensitive issues. Although they share little in common musically, POZI unwittingly chime with current politicised UK indie acts du jour Idles and Sleaford Mods in distilling their anger into impactful mantra.
The band are cutting in their criticism but Burroughs is loath to posit the group as social preachers. “Our songs mostly have an observational standpoint,” he says, “just reflecting some current social and political situations. I don’t think they have a direct impact, but maybe ask a few questions.“
PZI was championed by the likes of Lauren Laverne, Steve Lamacq, Gemma Cairney, Huw Stephens, Marc Riley, Radcliffe & Maconie, Amy Lamé, Tom Robinson, Tom Ravenscroft and John Kennedy, to name just a few.
https://twitter.com/pozibandhttps://www.instagram.com/poziband/https://www.facebook.com/pozibandhttps://twitter.com/prahrecordingshttps://www.instagram.com/prahrecordings/https://prah.co.uk/https://prahrecordings.bandcamp.com/