There is always something wonderfully disquieting about POZI’s music. With every new release it takes me a moment to get my ear in, as I am always caught a little off guard by their ability to take the essence of popular music and give it an askew twist. This is the band’s first new release since 2023’s Smiling Pools, and two years since they took a hiatus, but you would not know that from just how outstanding Bark Bark is. Violinist/vocalist Rosa Brook says, “writing Bark Bark was an instinctive, rapid, and exhilarating process of developing a different musical language with our bassist Frank whilst honouring our previous iterations. Exploring what our sonic palette might be now in reaction to the times.”
That ‘sonic palette’ is the secret to POZI’s success as a band. They make the most of violin, bass and drums; the primary instruments that create such special alchemy in their hands. This album has also been fleshed out with Joel Whitaker’s cello, the voice of James Massiah on ‘The Idea’, and Frank Lindsay on piano. It’s not easy to make compelling music with only three players but POZI weave their instruments into an angular whole that never leaves you feeling something is missing.
Their musical sharp-edges keep you happily unnerved; such as on ‘Booby Trap’ with its repeated violin riff opening and the positive/negative vibe of a continuously undulating tune (which is in keeping with its theme exploring “a surreal take on miscommunication and projection within friendships”). ‘Turkish Baths’ feels as wild as surfing a landslide, and the jerky spoken word of ‘Hale-Bopp’ is built on the dry beat of drums and bass, and a splash of reverb on the violin before the bass plugs into the national grid at the midway point to unleash a seismic riff accompanied by raptor swoops of violin. That’s worth the album price alone.
But for all the frictional heat that is generated by their arrangements, POZI are able to draw out moments of real beauty such as the sweet harmony response on ‘Hale-Bopp’, the cello and violin interplay on ‘Wait For Me’, the lullaby tune that repeats in ‘Charm Me Plz’ and the beautiful double-stopping bass and Brook’s haunting vocals on ‘Edinburgh’.
To listen to POZI is to be haunted by urban ghosts and the band say that Bark Bark has themes of “materialism, sexuality, and possession” and responds to “the bleak backdrop of post-covid Britain: war, ultra rich, click culture and climate change”. This is unnerving music for unsettling times, full of sharp angles, and an over-the-shoulder sense of surveillance, but is also as brutally beautiful as the Barbican or a flower growing through concrete. They say ‘third time’s a charm’ and that’s definitely the case here. The hiatus has reinvigorated the band and allowed them to produce their finest album to date.
Bark Bark was recorded at Toby Burroughs Rumbaba studio in Deptford, London is released on the band’s own Rumbaba Recordings label.
Much as POZI could headline the Scarfolk Festival, their next live show is actually at the Rio Cinema in Dalston, London on 6 December.
POZI are: Toby Burroughs – Drums + Vocals / Frank Lindsay – Bass + Vocals / Rosa Brook – Violin + Vocals
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Review by Paul F Cook
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