Dungen – Ta Det Lugnt / 2005 Kemado / 18 Tracks / http://www.dungen-music.com / http://www.kemado.com / Reviewed 21 October 2005

The pop presence on “Ta Det Lugnt”’s first track “Panda” is absurd; the catchiness of the first track is enough to ensure that listeners are locked into both discs. Coming from a very sixties-flavored tradition (for example, “Gjort Bort Sig” mixes “Eve of Destruction” with The Eagles, the best thing about Dungen is the fact that they do not let themselves become simply another band looking at the sixties. Even if most of the lyrics are sang in Swedish, lead vocalist Gustav is enough of a front-person to really transfer emotions through eir vocal tenor instead of veiled lyrics. Regardless of whether one knows what ey is saying, they know what ey means with each lyric, whether hopeful, tortured or fancy-free.

“Festival” is one of these tracks that really imbues a sense of longing to “Ta Det Lugnt”; the piano ending to the track seems odd in the circumstances, and acts as a pallet refresher between “Festival” and “Du Ar For Fin For Mig”. Using strings to increase the atmospheric allure of the track, the random jump-off of the track to resemble something closer to a Vangelis track (for the brief few sections of the breakdown) really keeps listeners alert and on their toes. The retro stylings of “Ta Det Lugnt” really seem to have a parallel in a lot of the J(apanese)-rock music of the last fifteen or years; what is common to both styles of music is a guitar-heavy type of rock that has no discretion about which genres the artist decides to assume for the space of the track. Coming more into a jazz style for the instrumental-heavy “Det Du Tanker Idag Ar Du I Morgon”, Dungen really move away from wowing their audiences with compelling lyrics and blast their listeners with an incredibly complex set of instrumental arrangements that have more to do with Miles Davis and The Weather Report than The Doors.

The increasingly instrumental bent of the later part of “Ta Det Lugnt” starts to get a little grating by the mid-point of “Lejonet & Kulan”; the stripped-down, straight-rock of “Bortglomd” does much to really clear the air and keep the disc fresh. The sheer scope of “Ta Det Lugnt”, coupled with the continual quality of each and every track on this disc makes this an essential buy. Even though many of the compositions have a certain sixties bent to them, the simple fact is that the aforementioned quality of each track will make individuals fall in love with disc, regardless of their tastes.

Top Tracks: Panda, Gjort Bort Sig

Rating: 7.1/10

[JMcQ]