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He's 24 years old, lives in the outskirts of Sweden, and he's splitting a great deal of time between psychedelic workouts in his "porto-studio" and studying classical, Swedish folk music at the Malungs Folkhogskola. His name is Gustav Ejstes, and he records music with his band under the name Dungen. After a messy divorce from Virgin left Ejstes so hurt, paranoid, and burnt, he swore he'd never release music again, but recently, Subliminal Sounds put out the wild ride of Ta Det Lugnt, and a buzz has spread from Europe to America and back again.
"Panda" kicks things off with an ominous drum rumble and searing guitar work that immediately harkens back to the heyday of 70's guitar-driven music. On "Gjort Bort Sig" the high-pitched, enveloping vocal shrieks mixing with the guitar are eerily reminiscent of a young, sexed-up Robert Plant.
It's not all head-ripping music, though thankfully, some of it is. The end of "Festival" finds a tripped out, sort of early lounge piano break giving way to the fourth track "Du E Fur Fin Fur Mig," which sounds almost like a heavily altered, Swedish cover of a Beatles song that you just can't quite place. Then it happens. At about the six-minute mark of this eight-minute bomb, a smoking, psychedelic guitar excursion erupts and melts the sun away.
The ability to cover musical ground with historical context is even more developed on the ambitious title track. From the hook-laden and popish, yet extremely cool vocal work (all in Swedish), to the grinding, over-driven guitar chug, to the weird old man's bar voice, to the Coltrane-hour smoke out break down, it's almost impossible that this is all one track.
The weirdo-demented keyboard blocks, resonating bass pulse, and frolicking open-meadow violin on "Lejonet & Kulan" sound like a scene from Doctor Who, but before you have a chance to get too lost in thought, "Bortglumd" is classic 70's, fuzzed-out guitar rock and heavy drums with Ejstes' other-worldly vocals.
The perfect use of the flute and light acoustic guitars to balance the metal-shredding heavy areas and bombastic drums make Ta Det Lungt an entirely enjoyable, most accessible, amazing album... In fact, it's one of the best albums to come across the ocean in years.
Kayceman
JamBase | San Francisco
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