Swedish Meatballs

Listening to Dungen’s Ta Det Lungt, it’s immediately evident that what we’re dealing with here isn’t the new psychedelic faction issuing yet another disc of overlong drone mind-melts, but the old world order. Psychedelic music’s recent incarnation has fashioned psych as a body music, which is strange. Think of it, the most outwardly, not to mention druggy, psychedelic bands today (Animal Collective, Sunn O))), Acid Mothers Temple, for example) use drone and music that foregoes and sometimes overloads the ears to become a viscerally physical thing. Of the three, AC remain more song oriented, but one listen to Here Comes the Indian and you’ll hear what I mean – digital washes make the hair stand up on your body. Even the oscillating acoustic guitars on Sung Tongs are hit rather than strummed or in constant crescendo/diminuendo pairings. Point is, volume and sound can be cerebrally disorienting and become wholly physical.

Dungen, on the other hand, use the old standard of mind-bending psychedelic experience, that may make them, dare I say, more capable. Where experimental psychheads use new methods to explore undeveloped terrains (sometimes to glorifying results), a band like Dungen and one of my favorites from last year, Comets on Fire, place more importance on technical prowess all while pushing the envelope of experimentation. Often times avant-garde and experimental psych music can seem aseptic, leaving emotion at the door in the void of experimentalism. On the flip side of that coin, retro leaning psych can seem contrived and boring.

The great thing about Dungen, is they never succumb to falling in a rut and not pushing boundaries. Their music is rarely if ever boring, only familiar through some of the melodies that seem to waft out of a bong from the late 60’s. There are the 8-9 minute guitar workouts, but the guitar is rarely aimless or stoned noodling, instead it’s unafraid to pounce and zoom. Perhaps the most psychedelic thing about Dungen, for better or worse, is that all of Gustav Ejstes’ vocals are delivered in his native Swedish. This creates the disorienting on top of the familiar. Its as if the music was written in English but the words are from another planet.

My only gripe, which is small, is the production. Ejstes and co. go for the 60’s sound and most of the time, the music sounds a bit thin and could be fleshed out to sound much fuller. But this is a small problem with an album that on the whole delivers music far outdistancing their experimental and retro peers. Dungen have given us an album for the ages – avant enough to be interesting yet unafraid to adorn their work with the brushstrokes of masters of their art.