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| Ah, Sweden. Land of beautiful blonde women, Abba and unpronounceable vowel sounds. Or at least that's what I think of when Sweden is mentioned. One thing that doesn't immediately spring to mind is psychedelia, but here come Dungen to send me back to school. |
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Dungen (not Dungeon) are a Swedish four-piece led by the charismatic Gustav Estjes. According to the bio on their highly informative website, Gustav had a very colourful musical upbringing, with wide-ranging influences including 60s pop, Swedish folk music and hip-hop.
Many of these influences are immediately apparent in Dungen's music, but a lot of the sounds you hear will also be uniquely Dungen. The best attempt I can make at describing Dungen's sound is a cross between Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd and The Beatles in their weirdo trippy-hippy days. But even that isn't adequate, and doesn't fully represent the variation in sound across Ta Det Lugnt.
The album starts out with 'Panda' - a pop-heavy, crazy drum bashing sing-along (if you speak Swedish) - and continues with the vaguely poppy theme until the middle of the album. This is where things start to get a little crazy, and you start to wonder if the mushrooms you had in that stir-fry really did come from Sainsbury's. 'Det Du Tänker Idag Är Du I Morgon' (and the same to you, sonny) is a flowing tripped-out jam session, and my personal favourite.
This is crazy, organic and original stuff. Normally, describing something in this manner would mean that Dungen are my new favourite band, but I'm still not sure. I love their fuzzed-up sound, their unpredictability, the tendency of the drummer to go completely mental at random moments. But I can't get used to Estjes' voice - he is one of those singers that like to hold a lot of notes, and if someone's voice grates on you a bit, it doesn't help if he holds all of the notes for six bars (slight exaggeration).
Maybe it's a grower. Maybe in a year's time, having listened to it 20 more times, it will suddenly click and everything will finally make sense. Or maybe I need some stronger drugs. Either way, I would recommend this to any passing hippy, but not to me. |
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| Will McLaren - 6/10 |
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