Schwarz - Schwarz

by Erick Mertz

published: 22 / 2 / 2015

Label: Hummus Records
Format: CD

Confusing and ultimately pretentious eponymous debut album from electronic-tinged Swiss act, Schwarz

Review

The opening sounds on 'Intronaut' on Schwarz’s self-titled album are draped in elements of the interstellar. That motif exists even from the cover, a hooded something, face receding, background stars and planets and you know the drill. The band delivers a brand polished, synthesized-complimented hard rock that tempts all sorts of association. The cosmos. Hints of Vaudeville. In places the songs tend toward hard rock but then pull tenuously back, ambling around awkwardly in search of some greater artistry. Every listen had me wondering, what is the damn what here? I’ll drop the fourth wall here. I’m up against deadline and still searching. While slick, gorgeously vocalized and well produced, I don’t know what this album is and how to make that resonate as anything other than emptiness. My persistent image as I went through the songs again and again is that this plays well in a place where no one is really listening. A night club. A crowded bar. Somewhere someone is looking across an anonymous room, needing a shallow soundtrack for whoever they lock eyes with.