ALLAS SAK

After a five year hiatus in which band members freely and productively explored other musical projects, Sweden's Dungen is back with a new set of wonderful yet more mature, more diverse musical offerings. Band leader Gustav Ejstes's instrumental choices, recording techniques, and stylistic palette have expanded considerably since 2010's Skit I Allt.

1. "Allas Sak" (3:29) opens the album with a couple great hooks: high pitch Rhodes piano arpeggi, a repeated series of descending slide notes on the electric guitar, and then syncopated electric guitar strums. Once the full band joins in and lead singer and principle songwriter Gustav Ejstes begins to sing, all sounds like the Dungen we've come to know and love. Some odd horn in the "C" solo slot feels fresh and new (Gustav on tenor sax?). (9/10)

2. "Sista Festen" (2:25) is a bongo-based song set up for Gustav's multi-layered, harmonized vocals and some Reine Fiske guitar soloing. (8/10)

3. "Sista gästen" (2:40) is a kind of set up for layers of wind instruments (multiple flutes, saxophone) and electric guitar work, Gustav's forward but whispered vocal and some Michael Giles-like drum play. Very interesting to hear electric guitar woven in with the "horn section" of flutes and saxes! (9/10)

4. "Franks Kaktus" (5:40) is an awesome bongo-based flute and electric guitar face off. Ejstes and Fiske bring the best out of each other--and the support crew of drummer Johan Holmegård and electric bass player Mattias Gustavsson are so solid. This is one awesome song! (10/10)

5. "En gång om året" (4:32) begins with pretty solo electric piano play, establishing the melody that Gustav soon picks up with his solo Swedish vocals. At 1:12 the rest of the band joins in for a few seconds before flutes, mellotron and acoustic guitar establish a kind of BEACH BOYS feel. Some amazing effects are used on Reine Fiske's slow but emotional soling in the song's final minute. Such a gorgeous, mature composition! Don't miss this one! Quite outside the usual Dungen wheelhouse! (10/10)

6. "Åkt Dit" (3:00) begins with piano and bass making moves around one another before the song kicks into nice with some really nice drumming, great vocal melodies (sung in Swedish), and awesome tenor saxophone contributions. Is that Reine Fiske on the Mellotron? (9/10)

7. "En Dag På Sjön" (4:13) is a piano-based instrumental jam set up for Reine Fiske and drummer Johan Holmegård to go ape crazy over. It feels as if it were an edited piece from a longer whole band jam--faded into as all four instrumentalists are hitting on all cylinders. Nice, and not excessive. (9/10)

8. "Flickor Och Pojkar" (3:10) is another instrumental, this one a little more delicate and soft. It opens with a xylophone sound (Rhodes piano?), flute and some kind of strummed percussive (later becoming the strummed acoustic guitar?) maintaining a floral quality to it throughout. (8/10)

9. "Ljus In I Min Panna" (3:57) is a pretty straightforward rock song with Reine Fiske's fuzz guitar lead playing throughout, though more in the background than on "En Dag På Sjön." Este's singing in the first half of the song is less melodic, more monotonous. Nice jamming to end, but definitely the weakest song on the album. (7/10)

10. "Sova" (8:34) opens with slow moving, floating organ chords supported by simple, basic rhythm section, while a heavily-treated vocal joins in (singing in Swedish) within the first minute. This one has an almost PROCUL HARUM feel to it. Harp and some of Reine Fiske's finest lead guitar work on the album help fill the gaps between singing parts. The background organ work in the fifth minute is quite interesting: at times quite a bit like carnival music, at others almost reverent, church-like. Over the top RF's truly psychedelic lead work slowly takes us off-world, into other dimensions. (The other instruments somehow magically disappear as if to support and/or enhance this effect.) Extraordinary song. (9/10)

I do think this is Dungen's most diverse, varied and mature set of songs--less hard as Ta Det Lugnt, not nearly as poppy as Skit I Allt, more eclectic than 4. Great album. If you love the Dungen sound but want to see the band continue to grow and experiment, don't miss this album. Your wish has arrived! 4.5 stars! Give me a little while, I may bump it up to 5 stars!