The Pop Group – Citizen Zombie
- Written by Adam Deuchars
The Pop Group, huh? Well it’s been a while it is fair to say. The last original recording released by The Pop Group was a mere 35 years ago before the volatility of the group, and the times too no doubt, split them apart in 1980. By way of a quick history lesson The Pop Group came together as five Bristolian teenagers riding the wave of punk energy to offer bright, flinty, new wave offerings with an overt political edge. The live shows of those times are remembered for their fervent spirit and uncompromising intensity. Anger was the energy that fuelled them and it did so spectacularly. The break-up of The Pop Group inevitably filtered the members in to other groups and musical projects. Yet the sense of unfinished business seemingly gnawed away at them individually till they came back together in 2010 announcing that “there was a lot left undone”. Even then it has been a further five years ‘til Citizen Zombie and their first new recorded material.
It may well be 35 years but there is not a word or note here which suggests any mellowing in the intervening years. It is a record which is uncompromising in thought, word and deed. ‘Citizen Zombie’ is the opening track and it is a disorientating mix of dirty dub grooves and atonal, angular guitar lines which grab you by the throat and eyeball you into submission. It is powerful stuff. Mark Stewart’s distorted vocal leaves the listener in no doubt that there is not the time or place for lazy escapism. The tone for uneasy listening is well and truly set. Next up is ‘Mad Truth’ which is as funky as hell. Glorious slabs of grooving bass form the foundation for the jangling, sparkling guitar lines to twist off whilst Stewart implores Sister Rita (whoever she is?) that “it’s time to make a stand.” It feels a long time since protest and politics have been this damn danceable. Then they pull off it again on ‘S.O.P.H.I.A.’ with Dan Catsis’ bass ripping up a thundering groove as Stewart yells/sings, “Assume nothing/Deny everything” again and again and again. And so it goes on, building track upon track, of glorious industrial funk soundscapes and that inevitable edge in Stewart’s lyrics and voice. ‘Nowhere Girl’ is a staggering stop start song with huge dub vistas, layers of earth rumbling bass shudder along pounding drums and great shards of beautiful white noise from the guitars. The vocals are all over the mix and leave your head spinning. Credit has to go to Paul Epworth whose production has kept all the edges razor sharp whilst melding the music together into this irresistible force.
It is hard to equate it closely to any other band and that is not something you get to say often. Vaguely, to grasp at straws, there is something that brings to mind Primal Scream’s XTRMNTR, with its fusion of hardened rock and tooth loosening dub. All the while the spirit of PiL and John Lyndon lurk somewhere in the shadows too. Make no mistake, The Pop Group are clearly masters of their own destiny. No cheap pilfering from others old or new on show here. Theirs is a singular vision which casts itself way (way) out of the norm. It is relentless, necessarily so, as it rails against all that is rubbish in modern life. For some the relentlessness will be too much. It will be too noisy, too difficult, too demanding ‘til it becomes overwhelming. It won’t be the automatic choice as a soundtrack to doing the dishes to, for instance. Unless you wish to get worked up about the futility and emptiness of late capitalist existence whilst wearing the marigolds.
It is hard to know how this record will fit in the current lives of those born in those intervening years between The Pop Group’s releases. Music, in general, feels hopelessly anaemic and apolitical turning a blind eye to the numerous inequalities in the world. Too many musicians seem invested in themselves as little business units desperate to build a career and make a few quid rather than challenge the status quo. Or challenge Status Quo for that matter. In this way The Pop Group are keenly out of sync with the times and perhaps the intensity of their message will turn many off. And ‘Age of Miracles’ suggests Stewart is aware of this: “Can they not see the signs?/Can they not hear the call?” over an ever so slightly lighter musical approach with piano giving the track a house-y feel. There is something forlorn in their mission, a raging against the dying of the light perhaps, but there is nothing here which makes Citizen Zombie step back for a moment.
It would be common to expect a bunch of middle aged men to reform a band to play out past glories on the nostalgia circuit. Nothing could be further from the truth for The Pop Group. The intervening years have sharpened their will to use their music to challenge, question and turn upside down the cosiness of our current age. The anger that remains with them has been honed into wonderfully disturbing music, an ice cold funky fury. Citizen Zombie may have roots in another time but it speaks loudly and clearly to the present. It feels essential in 2015; the here and now needs The Pop Group like never before. Please don’t let it be another 35 years.