Tio Bitar

Dungen | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 15, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Kemado
• ASIN: B000O170YO
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #204,725 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Tio Bitar leads off with a wordless guitar scream and a blaze of rhythm section, knocking a hole in the wall of sound just as quickly to let in an otherworldly flute melody that's pure Ian Anderson. As modern rockers go, Dungen makes no bones about reaching back into the past to embrace both Black Sabbath's beefy parallel riffing and Jethro Tull's flights of jazzy digression. This is the second U.S. release for the Swedish band, following 2005's Ta Det Lugnt and as their name implies, Dungen are heavy, metallic, and occasionally impenetrable. Though "psychedelic" is the main reference point that comes to mind, and songs like "C Visar Vägen" and "Familj" display as much structural schizophrenia and loopy, lovely melodicism as a Donovan record hopped up on amphetamines, don't mistake Dungen for an exercise in rose-colored nostalgia--there's more than a twinge of new millennium nervousness in this dense and quite compelling record. --Ben Heege

Product Description

2007 album from the critically-adored Swedish outfit, led by the musical madness of Gustav Ejstes, who combine gorgeous melodies with their own modern slant on Psychedelia. Dungen's music is sweet and somber one moment, electrifying and elegant the next, but is never less than fascinating. 10 tracks including 'Gor Det Nu' and 'Mon Amour'. Subliminal Sounds. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm not Bitar, May 14, 2007

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tio Bitar (Audio CD)

Personally, I never would have bet for Dungen to break out, outside of Sweden. Their dense psychedelic rock is not poppy even at their poppiest, and the whole thing is sung in Swedish.

But in fact, it did, with 2004's "Ta Det Lugnt," despite the music odds being stacked against it. And for the follow up, "Tio Bitar," Gustav Ejstes mostly sticks to the layered psych-folky hard-rock that has worked before, but gives it a slightly grimier edge.

It opens with a buzzing, screaming riff torn from a hard-rocker's heart, twisting around on itself like a coiled spring. But Ejstes throws in some twists -- around the halfway point, it cycles around a delicate flute melody and some rapid-fire drumming. And that's just the introduction!

He follows it up with the very different "Familj," a pleasant blend of ambient retro keyboard, dancy strings and solid drumming (mostly cymbals). You can't really put your finger on what it sounds like, and you can't really label it. Well, good.

The songs that follow are just as unexpected: intensely psychedelic hard-rockers like "Gör Det Nu," rippling pastoral ballads, fast-moving bass-rockers, gentle acoustic pop songs with spiraling riffs. And in the last three songs, Estjes makes his music even more complex -- the finale "En Gang I År Kom Det En Tår" is a masterpiece of fuzzy piano-folk and ambient synth.

"Tio Bitar" is a bit folkier and a bit rockier than Dungen's previous albums, and at times it seems to be split between those sounds -- first we get a psychedelic hard rocker, then a mellotron-folk song. But the heart of "Ta Det Lugnt" still seems to be there -- complex, strange and often meandering.

And Estjes packs this with even more instruments in his rapid, soaring music -- obviously there's the grimy bass and rampaging electric riffs, solid percussion and keyboards. But he packs in flashes of colourful mellotron, delicate flute, violins, and what sounds like klezmer, woven together into a shimmering psychedelic tapestry.

And I have no idea what Estjes is saying (except that the title means "Ten Pieces"), because I don't speak a word of Swedish. But he has a pleasant, mellow voice, sort of like a rockier Colin Meloy, and he can raise his voice to stand out in any kind of music.

"Tio Bitar" is a little bit folk-country, and a little bit rock'n'roll. But it retains the intense prog-psych-rock that Dungen is known for, and only makes it more entrancing.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars That decade you love is back in style., May 23, 2007

By 

over and under - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tio Bitar (Audio CD)

I have no idea what Dungen is saying, but somehow it doesn't matter; melody and coutermelody interweave themselves through this psychedelic recording like few have done in recent memory. It's overwhelming at first... like hearing anything reinvented on a grand scale... shimmering harmonies laden with hooks and allusions, all seamlessly integrated... so much energy and hard rocking moments... it's a stratospheric journey through the annals of rock, one that leaves you haunted and reaching for the play button a second time.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars not retro!, June 19, 2007

By 

Faustino Mendonça (San Francisco, Ca) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Tio Bitar (Audio CD)

A window into our own times. This is not retro...it is just pure cannibalism...Like Tropicalia was...I have seen these guys twice live...and they are even better then the records are. When they hit your town to tour this beast, it is a must if you want to see one of the last real rock bands on the planet.