Radio Pohmelye - Sunday Morning Workout

Hear The Track Here

Radio Pohmelye is - so I am informed - 'Electro funk from Helsinki, Finland' which you might not think that big a deal. Especially seeing at it has the dreaded word electro in it and it's in the electronica section - always garanteed to raise a shudder or six. You may very well be under the impression that Finland and it's musicians have a hard time of it in this anglo-centric world...and you would be dead wrong. The fact is that the Scandanavian countries (Sweden and Finland in particular) have produced some of the finest musicians I have ever met - online or off it. During the early online music scene, most of the big names were pretty much all Swedish, Finnish or some variant thereof so where I see musicians from these countries I always expect much and have rarely been disappointed. Don't know what it is about living in those countries but by golly they do produce some very fine, intelligent musicians.

Radio Pohmelye also appears to be one person, Meddi who (I presume) plays everything. Everything in this case covering a large swathe of the instrument world, and all with more than a passing knowledge. Although I continue to have niggles with the track soundwise, there is no doubt that Sunday Morning Workout is a class bit of instrumentation and arrangement. Which, as I explained in the first paragraph, is exactly what I expect from this part of the world. So although it may be billed as electronica, it doesn't quite get that far because of the live guitars happening all over the place. In fact, from an arrangement angle, SMW is a bit of a surprise - as are the rock tinges that filter through every once in a while.

It's where it doesn't score so highly that ultimately make this an interesting but maybe not gripping listen. There's a factory feel about the drum track, especially right at the very beginning, that makes me think of the rhythm accompaniment banks on certain makes of keyboard. The mix is well on the rough side too, with the vocals in particular suffering greatly. Overlooking that though, Sunday Morning Workout is a pleasant, if slightly whimiscal peice that you are either going to love or not. There's a nice rhythm informing the track, an almost disco number at times, that manages to keep everything bubbling along nicely and - from a musicians point of view - this is a nice treat. I'm not so sure from the listeners angle with the exception that Sunday Morning Workout is actually quite a good song too.

It'll be interesting to see what else this artist has up his sleeve.