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Pohjoinen - Pohjoinen
Inverse Records
Today, the music industry is infested with hightec equipment. Pop music is created with buttons.
Producers are becoming more important than artists and "DJ Autotune" creates the sound of the future. The result: an endless pool of bleeps, beats and identical vocals, bubbling up the most boring and mind numbing pulp known to mankind. Luckily for people who truly love music, people like me, there are still some save havens, loaded with vintage, analog equipment and driving on enthusiasm. These havens are devoted to creating music as an outlet in stead of a quick way to get rich (or die trying).
Let me introduce Pohjoinen, a trio from Finland, passionate about real music and devoted to guitars, bass and drums. Even more so. Pohjoinen is about to release an album which they see as a tribute to the music they love and to the music that has always been there when they needed it. The reason the band was formed, in 2011, was creating something of their own, something they could feel good about.
Gradually, along with a few line-up changes, Pohjoinen evolved into a downtuned stoner rock band, focused on groovy riffs and powerful drums.Opener 'RJD' drives on one of the most groovy stoner riffs I've heard in a while. Usually these riffs are pretty short but this one keeps on going. The rest of the songs use similar fuzzy guitar play and great clean doom vocals, in Finnish, which sometimes sounds a bit out of place (mainly because I'm not really used to other than English vocals with this style of music). However, the language brings an interesting 'folk' edge to the whole, making this a varied and very enjoyable album.
So, we've already mentioned doom, stoner rock and folk. Allow me to add psychedelic rock to that list as well. Pohjoinen often uses lenghty psychedelic outbursts, here and there even evolving into an intense wall of feedback noise. 'Tähdissä Nukkuva' is a perfect example of this and probably my favourite track on the album. The band themselves don't really care about all those styles and genres by the way. They just do what they feel like, and by sheer coincidence it's all about downtuned guitars and a slow tempo.
However, as a review webzine, we have to categorise this music in order to find an interested audience for Pohjoinen. So we'll go with "psychedelic stoner doom", drenched in a seventies sound. For people who like references, think of this as a slower, Finnish version of an Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats/Kadavar hybrid and you'll get pretty close. Yet, for everyone, all I can do to wrap up this review is recommend checking this album out. After all, it is an excellent rock album, made with a lot of love and passion. Basically, that's all we need, isn't it?
Serge
Inverse Records
Today, the music industry is infested with hightec equipment. Pop music is created with buttons.
Producers are becoming more important than artists and "DJ Autotune" creates the sound of the future. The result: an endless pool of bleeps, beats and identical vocals, bubbling up the most boring and mind numbing pulp known to mankind. Luckily for people who truly love music, people like me, there are still some save havens, loaded with vintage, analog equipment and driving on enthusiasm. These havens are devoted to creating music as an outlet in stead of a quick way to get rich (or die trying).
Let me introduce Pohjoinen, a trio from Finland, passionate about real music and devoted to guitars, bass and drums. Even more so. Pohjoinen is about to release an album which they see as a tribute to the music they love and to the music that has always been there when they needed it. The reason the band was formed, in 2011, was creating something of their own, something they could feel good about.
Gradually, along with a few line-up changes, Pohjoinen evolved into a downtuned stoner rock band, focused on groovy riffs and powerful drums.Opener 'RJD' drives on one of the most groovy stoner riffs I've heard in a while. Usually these riffs are pretty short but this one keeps on going. The rest of the songs use similar fuzzy guitar play and great clean doom vocals, in Finnish, which sometimes sounds a bit out of place (mainly because I'm not really used to other than English vocals with this style of music). However, the language brings an interesting 'folk' edge to the whole, making this a varied and very enjoyable album.
So, we've already mentioned doom, stoner rock and folk. Allow me to add psychedelic rock to that list as well. Pohjoinen often uses lenghty psychedelic outbursts, here and there even evolving into an intense wall of feedback noise. 'Tähdissä Nukkuva' is a perfect example of this and probably my favourite track on the album. The band themselves don't really care about all those styles and genres by the way. They just do what they feel like, and by sheer coincidence it's all about downtuned guitars and a slow tempo.
However, as a review webzine, we have to categorise this music in order to find an interested audience for Pohjoinen. So we'll go with "psychedelic stoner doom", drenched in a seventies sound. For people who like references, think of this as a slower, Finnish version of an Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats/Kadavar hybrid and you'll get pretty close. Yet, for everyone, all I can do to wrap up this review is recommend checking this album out. After all, it is an excellent rock album, made with a lot of love and passion. Basically, that's all we need, isn't it?
Serge