Album Review: Dungen, En Är F​ö​r Mycket och Tusen Aldrig Nog

On Dungen’s universally lauded third album, Ta det lungt, band leader Gustav Ejstes confirmed that he was already well soaked in the dark arts of psychedelia. His erudite excavation of early ‘70s Swedish acid-rock revealed a sonic curiosity. Almost two decades later, on En Är F​ö​r Mycket och Tusen Aldrig Nog (One Is Too Much and a Thousand is Never Enough), Ejstes continues to be wonderfully extreme in that endeavor.

Take ‘Nattens Sista Strimma Ljus’: a song unlike just about anything else, it’s  an aural enclave populated by Ringo fills, hardcore ‘90s jungle programming, Byrds’ ethereality and acid house breakbeats. The vocals, meanwhile, weave marvellously within the intricate arrangement. On the captivating sorcery of ‘Möbler’, Floydian hair, dream pop, ambient lounge chill, an acid-jazz groove and oldskool breakbeats are welded together seamlessly beyond any earthly border. ‘Var Har Du Varit?’ damns the purists, Reine Fiske’s fuzztone guitar foraging through an LTJ Bukem Logical Progression-flecked landscape.

Throughout the album, wonderful surprises occur – a klaxon pastoral metronome clocks ‘Klockan Slår, Den Är Mycket Nu’ across yacht rock, jazzy drum rolls, waves of dissonance and folk narration. Meanwhile, the melodic ‘Om Natten’, with touches of Vangelis, is sublime. It is astonishing what Dungen are willing to attempt – and fantastic that they manage the execution so remarkably.

8/10