Customer Reviews

Ta Det Lugnt [Vinyl]

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Unless you are from Sweden, you will not understand a word of "Ta Det Lugnt." Unless you are adverse to stunning psych rock, your ass will be rocked sideways by Dungen. Hell, I'm not even a huge fan of the stuff myself, but Dungen has pulled something together with this 13 track release that has really grabbed my ears and knocked me back to about the date of my birth (almost 30 years ago now, yikes).

I think that had I heard a release like this when I was still in high school and searching for something, anything different, I would have run the other way. Now that electronic music has been glitched to high-heaven and taken in 100s of directions and rock music has been distilled and re-distilled again, it's nice to hear something that sorta takes it back to the rocking basics and does so in a very, very good way. The opening track of "Panda" very well be an ode to the bear of the same name, but after opening with some rumbling drums and absolutely scorching riffs, I think that most people would throw their rock hands in the air and not even care. Overdriven guitars alternately squeal and space out and the drumming is spot on.

"Festival" opens with strummed acoustic guitars but soon launches into a heavy wall of layered guitars and another punishing rhythm section while "Du E För Fin För Mig" starts out with an aching string quartet before building into one of the most epic sing-along tracks I've heard this entire year. At well over 8 minutes, the track stretches out to a perfect length, lolling off into trippy sections while slowly adding layers and eventually turning into a thunderous rock stomper. Imagine Sigur Ros versus Beta Band versus classic psych rock all sung in Swedish and maybe you're getting somewhere close.

Really, Ta Det Lugnt is done so well that it's not just a disc that's going to only appeal to those with a retro achilles heel. The group touches on symphonic (see the aforementioned description), garage, indie, and even stadium rock in their genre-blending release. In just over 50 minutes, there's only a relative few moments that aren't that engaging, and they're offset with some of the more stunning psychedelic rock I've heard in awhile. Unlike some bands doing somewhat similar things, Dungen has also remembered that it's the hooks that really sell the release. With catchy riffs in just about every track, "Ta Det Lugnt" this is a hugely fun release that might make you do a double take on first listen, but will surely suck you in.

(from almostcool music reviews)

I first read about this album several months ago, and was quite unsuccessful in tracking it down. Needless to say, this built up some high expectations that the actual product certainly could not match. Surprisingly, Dungen's "Ta Det Lugnt" manages to not only match, but exceed my already high expectations.

Simply put, this is the best old-school psychedelia to hit the shelves since the heyday of the Olivia Tremor Control. Nothing on this disc betrays that is was recorded after 1968, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The sound of the album is in a cavernous ball of noise comparable to "The Who Sells Out" or Pink Floyd's "Piper At the Gates of Dawn." on top of this is a whole lot of Nuggets like distortion and compression. The lyrics are entirely in Swedish, but with the extreme echo efeects on a lot of songs, I doubt they'd be too intelligible in English. But this isn't an album you'd put on for the lyrics, but for the amazing swirl of sound. Organs, loud guitars, and compressed drums sound like they're beaming in from high atop Swedish mountain peaks, and songs meander in innovative ways, with choruses and verses expertly blending together and codas seemingly coming in from nowhere. This is a dense album with high replay value.

If you're a fan of stuff like Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, Elephant Six, or the Flaming Lips, grabbing a copy of "Ta Det Lugnt" is necessary and most possibly your duty. Besides, the American pressing comes with a 15 minute bonus CD which serves as the fun, experimental EP-like dessert once you're finished digesting the album.

Check the reviews on the original release if you doubt how brilliantly awesome this album is. Unfortunately missing from this particular item's description: this is a digi-pak re-issue of the 2004 release, now distributed by Hollywood Records with a bonus disc of five previously unreleased songs.

Hearing that somethings from Sweden and labeled as psychedelic rock at the same time makes for funny images of a country getting some backlogged images from 1970's American culture. At least thats what I thought. Swedish Psych? They must be ripping off Zeppelin or Floyd. Right? Well, a little, but damn it if wasn't SO good! They may rip off some of the best sounds of the freewheeling seventies. They may not be playing the most original music. But if they were around in those ancient times of sex drugs and rock and roll, we might have a different band that influenced current musical culture. There are a few things that will make this appeal to many people that probably wont hear it. For one, the sounds of the guitars they use range from old school fazed out gutiar fuzz to thick heavy grungy guitar sounds from Soungarden and the like. Even though all the lyrics are in Swedish (yes thats right - no english) the singer has a wonderful voice that sounds liek the best of the beatles the birds and alot of current popular indie rock bands of today. Which brings me to another point. They also use so many of todays indie rock sounds which brings their classical rock sound forward about thirty years. Coupled with their mastery and depth of songwriting (and their penchant for getting trippy) this could be a huge hit amone many different genres of fans. From rock and rollers, to your hippie parents, to those kids that sweat everthing on pitchfork.com (yes I am one of them) Check this album out and spread the word, because its not often we get to hear so much goodness on one record.

I'm literally just floored by the sounds on this album. For a generation of musicians equally influenced by guitars and the sounds of an Atari 2600, it's nice to know that there's someone in this world who's not afraid to revert to a formula that moved an entire generation before them. That's not to say that the music sounds dated, because it doesn't. In fact it's phenomenal, and I don't throw that word around loosely, especially when Pitchfork has already influenced their share of the world on what's good and what's not. I don't know anything about the band other than they don't speak a word of english, but with music this tight the guy's singing is just another instrument adding even greater depth and mystery. If you're a fan of any music that contains a guitar and drums, you'd be hard pressed to find a release more worth your money or time. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Everything about this album is nostalgia. From the cover art to the very instruments and mixing, straight-out-of-the-sixties-psychedelic-pop-bam-boom great music. Dig up a Swedish Jimi Hendrix and hook him up with The Who, Stones, and Beatles and you *might* come close to having a Dungen.

Dungen's third album "Ta Det Lungt" is not the sort of music that will get a lot of radioplay. Thank God. Instead, it's the sort of music that will deservingly acquire a cult following -- a sparkling, mad, wild musical psychedelic pop trip. This is probably the best Swedish import since Ingrid Bergman.

And there isn't any better way to open than with "Panda," a sparkling rock song that is both infectiously catchy and wonderfully rockin'. That fuzzy, cycling guitar works very well with the colorful Hammond melodies; it takes that great rock vibe and makes it fun as well.

Unless you are (or speak) Swedish, you probably won't understand a word Gustav Estjes sings. But somehow that's okay. He and his band forge through more wild tunes, like the echoing "Gjort bort sig," some mellow folk-rock, sprawling experimental songs (which brought a morning meadow to mind), and the sizzling riffs of the title track.

Not that everything is straightforward rock'n'roll; at the halfway point, things get a bit weird. "Det du tänker idag är du i morgon" is a smooth, shimmering little pop song full of flute, drums and Hammond, and is probably one of the prettiest songs released in the past year. It's followed by a few ominous experimental songs and an epic folk ballad, before finally finishing with a blast of pure, wild psychrock.

This version also has a five-song EP attached to it, and which serves as a nice accompaniment to the album itself -- burbly experimental, sizzling rockers, and a sparkly little Sigur-Ros-like ballad. It's a nice addition, although not quite as moving as the main album.

Dungen was one of the unexpected underground hits of the year -- before "Ta Det Lungt," they weren't really known outside of Sweden. Thankfully, that has changed, because their third album puts them up in the ranking of appealing, enchanting music that happens to be fun from start to finish. You c

One of the greatest things about "Ta Det Lungt" is the giant mass of instrumentation, which is somehow squeezed into small songs. The fuzz guitar can explore the cascading riffs, while the drums can smash or shimmer. And there's flute, Hammond, violin and gentle acoustic guitar, making up a colorful musical quilt.

Gustav Estjes has a lovely voice, frankly. I don't understand a word of what he DOES sing, but his voice is pleasantly ordinary-sounding, but still able to soar. At times, he almost sounds like John Lennon. But his biggest skill is his ability to not be overpowered by (or overpower) the music -- he sounds like a natural part of it, as if he were another instrument.

Wonderfully weird, colorfully charming, "Ta Det Lungt" brought Dungen into the spotlight, which is where they deserve to be. Definitely one of the best albums of 2005.

Unless you are from Sweden, you will not understand a word of Ta Det Lugnt. Unless you are adverse to stunning psych rock, your ass will be rocked sideways by Dungen. Hell, I'm not even a huge fan of the stuff myself, but Dungen has pulled something together with this 13 track release that has really grabbed my ears and knocked me back to about the date of my birth (almost 30 years ago now, yikes).

I think that had I heard a release like this when I was still in high school and searching for something, anything different, I would have run the other way. Now that electronic music has been glitched to high-heaven and taken in 100s of directions and rock music has been distilled and re-distilled again, it's nice to hear something that sorta takes it back to the rocking basics and does so in a very, very good way. The opening track of "Panda" very well be an ode to the bear of the same name, but after opening with some rumbling drums and absolutely scorching riffs, I think that most people would throw their rock hands in the air and not even care. Overdriven guitars alternately squeal and space out and the drumming is spot on.

"Festival" opens with strummed acoustic guitars but soon launches into a heavy wall of layered guitars and another punishing rhythm section while "Du E För Fin För Mig" starts out with an aching string quartet before building into one of the most epic sing-along tracks I've heard this entire year. At well over 8 minutes, the track stretches out to a perfect length, lolling off into trippy sections while slowly adding layers and eventually turning into a thunderous rock stomper. Imagine Sigur Ros versus Beta Band versus classic psych rock all sung in Swedish and maybe you're getting somewhere close.

Really, Ta Det Lugnt is done so well that it's not just a disc that's going to only appeal to those with a retro achilles heel. The group touches on symphonic (see the aforementioned description), garage, indie, and even stadium rock in their genre-blending release. In just over 50 minutes, there's only a relative few moments that aren't that engaging, and they're offset with some of the more stunning psychedelic rock I've heard in awhile. Unlike some bands doing somewhat similar things, Dungen has also remembered that it's the hooks that really sell the release. With catchy riffs in just about every track, Ta Det Lugnt this is a hugely fun release that might make you do a double take on first listen, but will surely suck you in.

(from almost cool music reviews)

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW...What an album stright out of the 1960's in fact iam listening to it as i write this, where's my acid man, here are the new switched on far out groovy guitars guys of the new generation, what a releaf it is to hear this music again, keep your street wise Hip Hop and your Rap Crap, I'll take this cd with me to the next solar system thanx...Over And Out

I listen exclusively to psychedelic and progressive rock recorded during the late 1960s to the mid 1970s and discovering this album was like finding a long-out-of-print Swedish psych/experimental treasure from 1971 (truth be told, my boss gave it to me because it was not his cup of tea). The fact that this album was released in 2004 makes it all that much more exciting.

Stylistically, this is quite a diverse album and although greatest emphasis is placed on psychedelic/experimental rock, there is an admixture of haunting Swedish folk music, European classical, ripping Hendrix inspired jamming, and quasi-cool jazz (that is, American west coast jazz - there is a brief jazzy jam section with a great spacey sax solo on Ta det Lugnt).

Instrumentation on the album includes analog equipment such as a real mellotron (with the flute setting) and very churchy sounding Hammond organ, which is used as a surrogate pipe organ (Lejonet & kulan is a great example of this). I should note that mellotron playing is an art form. The tapes only sustain a note for about 8 seconds or so, and on one passage, you can hear some fumbling that suggests that the note was held too long and the tapes ran out. In fact mellotron players during the 70s would have to use inversions to keep the sound going. Although these keyboard instruments are not used nearly as much on this album as I would have liked, it is still nice to hear them in this context, albeit for the extremely brief time they are used.

In stark contrast to the softer tones of the mellotron, is heavily distorted, ear-splitting, Jimi Hendrix-ian guitar work that is present on several pieces. However, being a great arranger, multi-instrumentalist bandleader Gustav Ejstes leavens the harsh distorted sounds of the electric guitar with acoustic guitar, acoustic piano, and spacier passages that utilize clean tones on the electric guitar. Other acoustic instruments include violins and woodwind instruments such as the flute. Both are used sparingly. The supporting musicians are solid and there is some decent bass guitar work and drumming on the heavier, more rocking sections. Although vocal parts are present (in Swedish), large sections of the pieces are instrumental. Vocal parts are electronically altered at times.

All in all, this is a good album that continues (or more precisely - resumes) the tradition of 60s-70s Swedish psychedelic/avant garde bands such as Algarnas Tradgard and International Harvester, in addition to Swedish 70s prog/psych artists such as multi-instrumentalist Bo Hansson. I would even go so far as to recommend this album to fans of early (1969-1971) Amon Duul II and other German experimental bands of the time (e.g. Ash Ra Tempel, Guru Guru).

Highly recommended to my fellow prog-heads desperately looking for interesting (and new) music.