Contributed By: DeBastard
Created On: Thursday, 17 May 2007
Hits: 85
 Tio Bitar The record opens extraordinarily with "Intro", a fried stage-setting rocker that massages one of guitarist Reine Fiske's majestically distended, havoc-wreaking guitar lines (and extended chords) through repeating flutes and busybody drums. As counterpoint, the next track, "Familj", is pleasantly airy, an afternoon Dungen pastoral that could go on forever. Then, the band summons stormclouds with the blustery, thundering "Gör Det Nu", echoing "Intro" in sheer fret magick, and shredding off any remembrance of its golden-skied predecessor.
But, perhaps acknowledged by its title (Tio Bitar translates as "10 Pieces"), the album doesn't always congeal. One song may uncharacteristically plod while the next overreaches. Most of its tracks are brief-- six clock in under four minutes, one above eight-- but while the tracks weren't much longer on Ta Det Lugnt, they all felt titanic. Granted, Tio Bitar's aesthetic pull aims for somewhat different horizons than the last album's larger, more energized sound, but-- tough love, guys, tough love-- where even Ta Da Lugnt's verdant instrumentals hooked talons into you, a few of these suites slide past like water off a duck's back.
Instrumentally, of course, the album is airtight. Its loose, colorful sunbursts of bright fiddle, guitar, organs, drums, tambourines, and flute find the band perhaps at their most technically proficient to date. In promotional material, we're reminded Dungen is basically the omni-instrumental Ejstes accompanied by guitar ace Reine Fiske, and here, Fiske's leads are the stars: Despite the band's overall move toward a quieter gentleness, his guitars cook with a unrestrained, Hendrixian sizzle. The drums, too, have their colossal moments-- especially when twisting out seismic rolls on "Svart Är Himlen". (Who's the more fun multi-instrumental drummer, Mascis or Ejstes?)
Still, chops alone can't salvage the midtempo "Ett Skäl Att Trivas", which sounds and feels like Dungen, but, with its lifeless drums and soporific bassline, bores very much unlike Dungen. Or, the one gigantic track, "Mon Amour", which recedes into extended soloing, forgoing the band's usual, admirable restraint for the kind of hippie self-indulgence they've always managed to transcend. Even given these disappointments, though, the record is far from a dramatic departure from the band's previous outings-- you'd certainly never mistake it for another band-- and its few missteps are well balanced by a handful of blissful, seismic bright pockets. Just be ready for its late-afternoon haze: Leave your acid on the porch and grab the bong instead.
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