Review: The Cherry Orchard at The Blue Theater
EAST Interview: Nick Henning at Pump Project
Radio IST List: Dan Green of 4ms Pedals
Snapshots: Friendly Fires & XX @ Mohawk
Longhorns Around the Web
Swedish psych-folk-grunge-pop-prog-(breath)-retro-rockers Dungen have staked out a tidy claim within the international rock scene, writing and singing their lyrics entirely in their native language and cramming their albums with enough acid-fried guitar leads and otherworldly instrumental touches to fill an entire section at Waterloo. Yet their own originality has caught up with them on 4, the misleadingly-titled fifth full-length, created in the studio by resident auteur Gustav Ejstes. The touchstones are all there--guitar freak-outs, jazzy piano touches, elements of Swedish traditional music and various sonic accouterments--yet it has a second-hand feel, coming on the heels of its near-classic predecessors, Ta Det Lungt and Tio Bitar.
We suppose it can be considered ambitious for a band to want to sound exactly like two classic bands, rather than just one. On the front, Norway's Serena Maneesh succeeds admirably, melding My Bloody's Valentine's breathy, multi-tracked vocals and finely textured guitar squall to the Velvet Underground's gilded proto-punk. Yet this odds-and-sods double album, featuring remixes and various other material, feels somehow more original than it has any right to be. Disc one features remixes of older tunes that drain the dynamics from the original tracks, but keep all the energy, creating vaguely ambient, texture-based rock songs. Definitely a good choice for Sunday morning listening. Disc two sticks with the basic rock-comp template, but listening to these neo-shoegaze anthems in the context of the previous disc gives both sides of the band a heightened sense of purpose. We're totally getting into their older stuff.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Post a comment (Comment Policy)