The Swiss

I am, herein, referring to the Bristolian Swiss, who might or might not still be alive, and who will mostly come up second after the Australian Swiss, for example, on websites such as Last.fm.

I am, happily, acquainted with 3 out of 4 members of The Swiss. However, I only managed to get hold of their highly elusive LP, Figure Like Jan Molby, in November of last year. The band is apparently marred by the erractic behaviour of genius, breaking up, reforming, gigging a bit, and releasing records not a whole lot. However, the three demos I had in my library since God-knows-when (2004?) were played and replayed enough times for me to nag Nigel (drums/backing vocals) into sending me a CD.

Figure Like Jan Molby is, frankly, in another league to any other fuzz-infused, bass-heavy, post-punk/power-pop you might hear coming out of Bristol this decade. The guys bring together a massive range of musical experience and a gigantic pallette of influences, and the fact that lead man Stew (primarily a guitarist) plays bass, while Leroy (the meanest, funkiest bassist in the South-West) plays guitar, should signify that The Swiss intend to make rock music in a way that is different. By which, of course, I mean clever, well-crafted, interesting…

The songs are brief, witty, and explosive. The versatility and refined talent of each of the four musicians is masterfully disguised behind some of the poppiest, catchiest tunes you will ever hear. This is a band that truly blows my mind, even though you could easily catch a snippet of them on the radio and just say, ‘Meh.’
Such is life.

I thoroughly recommend tracking them down, perhaps through MySpace, and trying to get hold of some songs. Live Swiss performances have recently made their way onto YouTube, and Liam has been drawing attention to them through twitter.

Check out The Swiss’s youtube channel and myspace page to hear more.

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