Album Reviews

Dungen – 4

Not everyone can transcend genre and stretch the definition of the rock song like Dungen. On 4, the Swedish band exchanges itsusual ’60s-style jams for tightly orchestrated songs composed of jazz drums, glockenspiels, and grand pianos. Gone are the repeating verse-choruses of traditional rock, but the core Dungen sound remains intact, due largely to virtuosic composer Gustav Ejstes, who helms these delicate, yet powerful pieces by writing the arrangements and playing most of the instruments. The songs delve into folk rhythms and jazz cadences with Zappa- esque vision, as Ejstes’s soaring vocals transcend language (he sings in Swedish) to deliver the raw emotion of 4′s songs. He makes his guitar sing, too, as the languorous notes fade into lush feedback, draping the album’s solid foundation of piano music with another layer of gentle noise. Dungen’s 4 is fiercely uncompromising and dramatic, without pretension-an entirely fearless album that is not afraid to wander into the unfamiliar.

-Drew Tewksbury

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© 2008 Drew Tewksbury: Multimedia Journalist.