Music Video: Züri West - Güggu

Some countries just aren't thought of as "musical" countries.  Switzerland is one of those countries.  You hunger for cheese?  Sure, Switzerland is great.  You need precision time pieces?  Again, look to Switzerland.  You've got hundreds of tons of gold bullion flown in the middle of the night from a darkened airstrip in the Congolese jungle that needs to "disappear" until the international tribunal goes into recess?  You can't beat Switzerland.  But music?  Really?

Yes, the Swiss can do that too!

Let's be honest, some of my favorite bands come from Switzerland.  For thrashing psychobilly, there's The Peacocks.  For quirky alt-guitar pop, there's Stahlberger.  For reggae, there's Phenomden.  For stripped down alternative rock, though, you can't do much better than Züri West.  This band has been around for longer than most of you have probably been alive (since 1984), but as demonstrated by their recent album "HomeRekords", they can still create interesting and enjoyable music.  The song Güggu, from this album is an excellent example of Züri West's moving forward by looking back sound.  And just in case you're wondering, they're singing in Bernese, a Swiss-German dialect.

Music Video: Dodo - Leu vo Zueri

In case you haven't noticed, I have been on something of a roots reggae kick as of late.  What fascinates me about reggae is that, like hip-hop, it seems to transcend languages and borders almost effortlessly.  Today's illustration of this fact is Swiss reggae artist Dodo, and his song Leu vo Zueri.  As with reggae anywhere, Dodo delivers smooth grooves, a powerful message, and a gripping voice.  The only difference between Dodo and other reggae artists that we have seen here before is that Dodo delivers all of these key elements in Swiss German.