EXIT

Switzerland of course leads the world in fine chocolates, really clean streets and international banking but as far as music goes has pretty much always existed in the shadow of neighboring Germany to the north. Despite the fact the Swiss music scene has never been extremely prolific, it's amazing that the few bands that do emerge from that nation's borders are of extremely high quality so it comes as a surprise when i finally experience a fairly mediocre band that emerged from the same watch-making nation as bands like Coroner, Celtic Frost, Darkspace, Circus, Island, Krokodil, Brainticket and Toad but then again maybe i just haven't dug deep enough into the vaults of obscurity.

EXIT is a band that formed in the northern city of Frauenfeld in 1972 and consisted of the members Andy Schmid (guitar, harmonica), Edwin Schweizer (bass), Roman Portail (organ, synthesizer) and Kafi Kaufmann (drums, percussion). The band existed until 1979 but in its seven year existence only released this one self-titled album that came out in 1975. The band played a form of hard rock that employed a few prog characteristics such as a cosmically inspired organ, a few improvisational deviations from the song structures as well as a couple extended tracks that oozed over the eleven minute mark. The album has only four tracks and clocks in just over 38 minutes.

Having opened up for bands like Birth Control and Jane, EXIT very much fit the bill of playing hard rock with extra proggy touches with an electric guitar, synthesizer, bass and drums and occasional harmonica sounds. The most obvious reference for the hard rock aspect of the band's sound is The Who with many Pete Townsend inspired guitar tricks such as the easily pegged strumming techniques on the opener "Paradise." The keyboard parts are right out of the Birth Control playbook which must've sounded a little too derivative considering they toured together. While the longer tracks are the more interesting the album suffers from extremely awful vocals which no member was willing to take credit for and remains a mystery. Unfortunately the music suffers significantly from this aspect despite being decent otherwise.

Sung in English, EXIT did employ many aspects of psychedelic rock with some sounds bringing the California scene to mind and at other time during the more lysergic moments a little early Pink Floyd however the music always reverts back to the catchy pop rock sounds of The Who and other late 60s rock bands. Not a bad way to resolve the moments of escaping the gravitational pull of reality but once again marred by the substandard vocals where dude struggles through the album's entirety but considering the vocal parts are a main staple, it can be a hard pill to swallow.

The potential for EXIT to craft an interesting album is evident with swirling keyboards taking the horse by the reins and the songwriting skills being fairly interesting but the overt Who and Birth Control influences display a bit of amateurish hero worship and the wimpy vocals are the deal breaker. Despite it all EXIT crafted a really good album but not one that comes close to the primo first class quality of Swiss bands that many of us have come to expect from this land that places quality over anything else. EXIT should be a band well below your required list of Swiss bands as the prog bands Circus, Welcome, Kedama, Krokodil and Island are infinitely more talented and interesting. Despite the mostly proto-prog performances on EXIT, this one has its moments and an interesting listen for those digging deeper into the annals of history.