DUNGEN [AKA: DUNGEN 1999-2001]

4.5 stars. I know 2 people who have stated that this is their favourite DUNGEN album, now I know why. It's actually the debut album with some unreleased material from that time woven in. It works really well.It's a 45 minute album with three long tracks on it. The only really negative thing I can think of is that Fiske isn't as prominant as he will be on later records. This recording does sound different for the most part from later releases. What ties them together are the vocal sections, but there's very little of them here. What is different is how Psychedelic this is. I mean this is spacey and experimental beyond anything they would do after this. And that's what makes this so appealing to me.

"Stadsvandringar" is the 15 minute opener. It begins with Fiske doing his thing in an impressive way. Vocal melodies join in as we get that familiar Psych / Pop 60's sound. It settles before 2 minutes with organ and drums standing out as the guitar plays over top. A change after 3 1/2 minutes as flute comes in, then it turns jazzy with sax. Another change 5 1/2 minutes in as female vocal melodies arrive but they're brief, then drums and guitar trade off. It turns very psychedelic and spacey, almost spacey Klaus Schulze-like from before 7 minutes to around 10 minutes when it changes again. This next section is mellow with vocals including flute. It changes 13 minutes in as flute, organ and drums take over. Drums dominate late.

"Widsommarbongen" has this dreamy rhythm to it then it turns spacey with organ. The birds are chirping too. A change 6 1/2 minutes in as drums arrive followed by bass and flute. Another change before 10 1/2 minutes with the guitar coming in. Keys and vocal melodies too. It's dreamy 12 minutes in. Another change before 17 minutes to a more abrasive sound. "Lilla Vannen" opens with reserved vocals, percussion and strummed guitar. I like it ! Again it's dreamy. Flute joins in too. It changes as drums and organ come and go together. We get a melody at 4 minutes with vocals. It's that Psych / Pop sound from the start of the album. A change 7 minutes in as the tempo picks up. Great sound here. It then settles as we get a beautiful ending.

There are three DUNGEN albums including this one that i'm very impressed with. This is the most Swedish (dark) of them all.

The Swedish outfit's first, best and most overtly psychedelic release, this self-titled effort was originally issued in 1999 on vinyl only and in a (very) limited run of just 500 units. A surprise underground success throughout Scandanavia and mainland Europe - and then belatedly in the USA - original copies quickly became much sought-after collectors item for vinyl-junkies and psych-freaks before the album was finally reissued in CD format in 2005, six months after the release of the group's fourth album 'Ta De Lugnt'. Happily enough, however, it was well worth the wait. Featuring a hazy, ethnic-tinged retro-psych sound fused with engaging pop melodies and deeply-cosmic instrumental meanderings, 'Dungen' pulls of the remarkable trick of sounding authentically old-school, like some lost soundtrack to a late-sixties exploitation flick that never was. Unlike the original album though, 'Dungen' the CD reissue condenses and remixes the music into three lengthy pieces(the original album featured eight tracks) each buzzing around the twenty-minute mark and each blending effortlessly into the next and therefore giving the impression that there is in fact just one, epic track making up the album. With it's vibrant mixture of jangly guitars, soaring flute runs, skittering percussion, flipped- out electro passages and haunting female vocals, opener 'Stadsvandringar' is a perfect example of Dungen's gloriously psychedelic sound, especially in the serene mid-section of twittering birdsong, grinding organs and misty soundscapes that brings to mind the haunting mid-section of the Pink Floyd track 'Dogs' from the English quartet's 1977 album 'Animals'. Even mellower and beginning with a haunting medley of glistening keyboards, follow-up piece 'Midsommarbongen' takes the listener into even deeper psych-scape territory, jumping head- first into a jazzy, sitar-drenched jam, before the album's final epic 'Lilla Vaennen' finds yet more spectral acid- rock rhythms bubbling away underneath an array of mystical flutes and delicately-cooked raindrops of late-night keyboards. Unlike later albums, which pursued a more Beach Boys-inspired psych-pop direction, 'Dungen' is, simply put, the full psychedelic experience. Topped off with a contemporary gloss, this is a wonderful slice of deeply mystical cosmic rock that should more than delight fans of late-sixties psychedelia.

STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2012