Thinking of Switzerland I think of mountains, chocolate, cheese fondue, Wilhelm Tell and political neutrality. When no future think of their home country, they think of friendship, the compulsory military service and reggae rock.
Wohri Fründschaft (True Friendship), released in 2008, is a left wing reggae rock EP covering political issues as much as celebrations of friendship and life. Swiss German dialect is paired with English lyrics, musically ranging from full on rock to more ska influenced brass sections. Over five songs, the band presents their essence: to enjoy and live life to the fullest, to subvert the idea that time is money when instead, it should be freedom.
If you’re not a Swiss native you will probably have trouble understanding the lyrics. I have. Even if you are confident in German, you are in no way prepared to find your way through the abbreviations and neologisms inherent in Swiss German, the different vowels, the rolling of certain Rs or the rhythm of the language. I can manage to follow the choruses, distilling the central message of the songs sung in dialect. And although meaning is central to the politically charged tracks on the EP, what stands out more to me is the flow, the rhythm, the patterning, the choreography almost of the syllables as they flow with the music in brilliant harmony.
Just take the first track, 147 Täg, a song that centres around the compulsory military service for any male Swiss citizen between 18 and 25 years old. Reggae brass sections meet drum rolls and syncopated bass lines, a youthful energy carried into the vocal performance. The rolling of the Rs in the dialect and the rolling of the drums, the rhythm of the brass section with the rhythm of the lyrics, the nationally significant topic condensed into a catchy reggae rock track. Even if you’re not affected as a non-Swiss citizen, this song makes you feel engaged, makes you feel like a part of the addressed group, makes you share the oppositional stance of the band. For a song released in 2008 it has lost nothing of its political significance and infectious beats.
It’s such a switch when no future start singing in English. Go On and Dudes aren’t bad songs but they can’t compare to the charming energy that is carried by the Swiss German dialect. A certain loss of uniqueness befalls the music, forfeiting local specificity for universal accessibility. Out of the two, Go On, has more body to it, more groove, more of a rock music feeling. A female voice that plays with the lines, grinding the notes beautifully with such passion and musical instinct that easily overshadow the narrative simplicity of the words.
Categorising themselves as reggae rock, no future expertly play with the spectrum this genre description offers them. Wohri Fründschaft, the titular song, takes more after the rock side of things. Although a mellow trombone early on in the song hints at the more personal topic of the track, the song is strongly rooted in DIY rock sounds. What sets it apart from its German contemporaries is the flow of the Swiss German dialect, the way the words nestle themselves against the drum flow, filling all the little crevices, the Rs and Chs like the ebb and flow of an ever-moving ocean. On a track where the main instrumental melody during the verses is given to the brass section it makes perfect sense to highlight the rhythmic qualities of the vocal line. Combined with the more traditional rock bursts of the chorus, Wohri Fründschaft is a track about the beauty and importance of friendship.
Flowing from rock to reggae, Freihait highlights the latter. Yearning for the laid back attitude of the opening beats, no future sound like a reduced Swiss version of Berlin-based band SEEED. Which is by no means a diss but rather the imagined ideal of what would happen if SEEED were to take a holiday trip to the Swiss mountains without their whole musical equipment. It’s freedom recorded. Not only in terms of content but in terms of feeling. The breeze of fresh air encircling the trumpet lines. The beat of the earth pulsating in the beat of the bass. The ease of the Swiss German dialect that so beautifully captures the feeling of sunshine on your face and the amazement experienced by simply looking up at the sky on a spring day.
I kind of want to go to Switzerland now. I want to stand on the top of a mountain and scream my lungs out. I want to sit in a student flat, drink wine and discuss Swiss politics. I want to grab a group of my newly found Swiss friends and have them teach me their dialect so I can finally sing along to the verses on this EP. I want to dance into the early hours of the morning, simultaneously caring so much and so little about what the future brings.
The Dad Anthology 