Schvendes - SmallMercies, Sweet Graves

Mon 29th Jan, 2007 in Music Reviews

Despite the band picking up a record nine WAMi Award nominations in 2006, Schvendes are still relatively unknown outside their home state of WA. Their music is hardly the type to captivate commercial radio listeners with danceable beats, infectious basslines and vocal hooks, but the sound that these five musicians produce is unlike anything else out there right now.

Ever-present in Schvendes’ live sets for some time now, it was only a matter of time before Small Mercies, Sweet Graves made it to the airwaves. Maybe not Nova or its equivalent - there’s too much to Schvendes to sum them up in a neat three-minute package. This is the sort of music that grows with you with every listen. It may not floor you first time around - you might despise it - but for some reason there’s something there that makes you keep going back. And with each listen, you notice one or two more intricacies that you missed last time. Ant Gray’s guitar sounds are virtually non-existent on one listen, yet they surround you on the next. Rachael Dease’s snarl will overpower her band’s instruments one second, before her bass and Tristan Parr’s cello slither over, under and around one another the way vines make their way across garden walls, pushing the vocals all but out of consciousness.

As long as Dease fronts the band, there will always be PJ Harvey comparisons - but there’s a lot that separates Schvendes from all the Polly Jean clones. Schvendes is as much about everything else going on in the room as it is the vocals and the dark, brooding sound they’re now known for. It almost goes without saying that this is a headphones record and is probably best suited to a room lit by a single candle and accompanied by a glass of red wine. If you’re looking for a feelgood summer anthem, run away. Fast. But if all those toe-tapping indie bands make you want to curl up and die, locking yourself in your room with this disc glued to the inside of your stereo might be the next best thing.