Customer Reviews

Dungen

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Dungen has become one of this listener's new favorites. It's hard to describe Dungen's sound to virgin ears without mentioning groups like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and Pink Floyd. How can any band make up for such a large sonic loan? The group makes ear candy that is the result of adding Swedish vocals to an original employment of the aforementioned ingredients. While sung entirely in Swedish, the music remains relatively accessible to Anglophones given the sweet vocals and lengthy instrumental passages. Indeed, the jazz inspired instrumental passages will appeal to listeners in the jamband camp. Gustav Ejstes and company manage to rock hard and keep a feel good vibe. While the lyrical content may remain a mystery, the vocal timbre suggests that this music very well may be the official soundtrack to cosmic peace, love and harmony. Specifically, 'Lilla Vännen' is one of those eight minute sparklers that gives the band plenty of space to stretch out. The song even includes sitars and King Crimson (ala Court of the Crimson King) style flute work. 'Och du Frågar Mig Varför' features some of the album's strongest vocals. The guys harmonize in what sounds like sonic velvet. The occasional string section adds a folksy feel while moments of brass add an unexpected lift. Back in 2000, this was the band's initial release. Since, Dungen has nurtured a consistently strong discography. That written, "Ta Det Lugnt" (2004) does seem to edge slightly above the others. Regardless, this self-titled album is one of many jewels in the group's discography. With enough exposure, these guys are destined to become an epic phenomenon in the States. Forget about ABBA, this is the only Swedish band that you need to appreciate: long live psychedelia!

Dungen is definitely one of the truer-to form of the 60's recreationists of today. While there are many groups right now (well, maybe not many, but a handful) that are fantastically reminiscent of the first psychedelic era while still remaining innovative and creative, dungen has done it with remarkable talent and an impeccable authenticness.
the first song here is a great start for the album. it at first releases all this energy and intensity while eventually segue-ing into this mellow folksie jam with wonderful flute, vocal harmonies, blissed-out organ, hand drums; the whole shabang. The 2nd track, "Midsommarbongen" comes in with an utterly stoney sitar-oriented intro, which quickly moves into a slow and eerie pace of ambient thickness. It sounds like early Pink Floyd - and I mean like SUPER early - like pre "Piper at the Gates" early, when they used to just jam in clubs like the UFO. this seems a sprawling and unfocused piece, but I later noticed how at the end, it all crumbles back into the main theme that kicked the song off, wrapping it up nicely. The final track also has multiple parts, and may very well be the best of the three simply for the beauty that occurs at 7 minutes. This one starts off with a middle eastern feel with many exotic instruments going wild until it impatiently moves into is an even more floyd-y space for awhile. It then swirls into this wonderful bit of rock glory (the part at 7 min) that evolves itself, but still for the most part carries until the final fadeout.
While split into many different parts with different feels and tempos, the album itself seems to maintain a certain mood throughout.. But I think I will let you decide what this mood actually is. Some real quality stuff here though, and you surely won't want to miss out especially if you have everything dungen's done and want to see the first stages of psych they went through before the more successful albums. Overall just an incredible record of mind warping tripp that even blows a lot of the actual 60's folk/psych/rock out of the water.

Looks to be Dungen's first out of (I'm guessing) six CD offerings. You get three lengthy tracks to soak in. The four-part "Stadsvandringar" (14:49), the six-part "Midsommarbongen" (18:34) which I really liked this song number two better than the other couple of compositions and "Lilla Vaennen" (11:37). Personnel: Gila Storm - vocals, Gustav Ejstes - guitar, keyboard, flute & vocals, Alex Wiig - sitar, Marco Lohikari - bass, Linus Gustafsson - saxophone and Fredrik Bjorling - drums. Obviously, real major progressive fans would likely get more out of this CD than I did.