POSSESS YOURSELF!

"POSITIONS OF SUBMISSION ARE POSITIONS OF POWER." Roswell Greeniaus' fifth collection of original songs finds him returning to the experimental, futurist edges of his debut, DARKNET (2017). If The Sabotage Montage (2021) was his exhaustingly exhaustive mind map, each Quadrant a conflicted, colour-coded continent, Posses Yourself! has Greeniaus scrunching the pages of the atlas for papier-mâché. Through maximalist pop songs whose simple structures comprise a sonic minefield of explosive distortion, swelling wall-of-sound melodies and a madcap spontaneity, Greeniaus searches for a small pearl of inner peace. Here, variegated flavours are distilled into an acidulous concentrate: Uncomfortable memories are flung into the spotlight and forced to jazz-hands their way to triumphant resolutions ("Aperture"); else the open-ended questions are terraformed into waltzing, gnarled self-mythologies ("Nevers"). His familiar sax-and-synth combo returns, this time joined by pummelling percussion and globe-trotting string sections. Like the album artwork's peafowl feathers bent into butterfly wings, Greeniaus twists his insular stories of preening self-examination into self-acceptance. With an ingrained reverence for natural cycles and transformations, the album alludes to loss as not an ending but a springboard for growth and fresh outlooks. While the narration is often retrospective, Greeniaus appears far from nostalgic; the artwork's floral frame accordingly suggests a funerary offering. Evidently, this is the eulogy, electrified. ___ About the album, Greeniaus says: "I've read that SOPHIE once suggested the genre of her music is Advertising. While there’s much to say about the intersection between commerce, art and authenticity, I've always understood that seemingly-wry remark to be an honest confession. It seemed to me SOPHIE wanted music—or culture as a whole—to push past the confines of history, of format, of tradition for its own sake. Her work was demonstration: a pure advertisement for the possibilities of sound. With that spirit, I tried to abandon my sense of practical music, music that could be played on-stage with familiar instruments. I wanted to honour my inner child with a return to playfulness and exploration. Which textures excite me? Which rhythms make me dance? I was constantly checking in with myself while building this world, sharpening my intuition. Learning how to trust myself after years lived in doubt. I stopped reaching for perfection. I surrendered to everything I already was.” ____