DUNGEN + HALVES

“Dungen’s latest album, Skit I Allt—loosely translated as “fuck all this”—is the band’s most focused, largely forgoing Ejstes’ wilder stylistic excursions in favor of insistent, precisely modulated “head music.” Obvious touchstones include early-’70s Pink Floyd and latter-day Flaming Lips, though with Dungen’s love of flute, strings, and sunshine-pop harmonies, Skit I Allt sometimes resembles a Windham Hill version of a Cardigans album, or vice-versa.” – The Onion “Dungen has a vision unmatched in music today, and an album their larger peers in rock experiments could only dream of producing.” – Filter “… the blissful summery mood hangs around for ages. If you don’t want summer to end, or you’re a SAD sufferer, then consider Skit I Allt the best and cheapest antidote on the market.” BBC Music “Constantly questing without ever becoming indulgent…” – Uncut “Dungen’s seventh album is a Swedish indie gem.” – NME “there’s a warm, graceful fluidity to Skit I Allt’s billowing jams that remains uniquely beguiling.” UNCUT Dungen sweetly return with a collection of gorgeous rippers and graceful jazz filled polyrhythms called Skit I Allt, which translates as Fuck it All. “For me, it means, don’t give a shit, forget about it, just go ahead and do it. A friend said, Skit I Allt; Fuck it, do as you want, time is passing and it’s changing, forget fears and hang-ups, we are small and everything is pretty insignificant on the whole. How will it be? What shall we do? We often worry so much unnecessarily. Skit i allt, it’s happening now”. – Gustav Ejstes In what feels like a very short decade, Sweden’s Dungen has mutated at a furious pace. Main man/ producer/ arranger/ singer/ golden child Gustav Ejstes’ only constant has been change. At ease with effervescent pop, third-eye popping psychedelia, heavy rock, spider-web folk and breezy jazz, Dungen’s dynamism astounds throughout Skit I Allt. Rather than remain only Ejstes’ studio vision, Dungen is a muscular full band now. Guitarist Reine Fiske, bassist Mattias Gustavsson, and drummer Johan Holmegard are fully integrated into Ejstes’ vision of Dungen: “Whether you perceive Dungen as a band or as me and my songs and my productions, the band is something totally free.’ Dungen debuted in 2001 with an album of long psychedelic tracks and aural tomfoolery. 2002’s Stadsvandringar found Ejstes coming to grips with the language of rock before the zeitgeist-grabbing third album, Ta Det Lugt ignited the blogosphere. Not content to revel in such accolades, Tio Bitar flashed the band’s pop smarts as well as their incandescent freak-outs while 4 put the band’s cohesiveness on display, at once gorgeous and biting. This latest album is the one that takes in everything they’ve done, and learned, and brings them whole. http://www.subliminalsounds.se http://www.dungen-music.com http://www.myspace.com/dungen HALVES It’s been long in the making but Dublin based band Halves debut long player titled It Goes, It Goes (Forever & Ever) will finally be with us on October 29th on CD and Deluxe gatefold vinyl (with free mp3 download). Darling, You’ll Meet Your Maker is the first free download from the album and its rich artful instrumentation sums up Halves’ modus operandi perfectly. It Goes, It Goes (Forever & Ever) was recorded in Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s studios Hotel2Tango in Montreal with Efrim Menuck in August of 2009. 11 songs were recorded live, in one large room on 2″ reel-to-reel tape with the use of the studio’s vast collection of instruments, amps, organs, effects (most of which dated from 1930s-1980s). Additional recording took place in the band’s own studio The Windfarm with Richard McCullough. Perfomers on the album include Amy Millan (Stars/BSS), Katie Kim, Phil Boughton (Subplots), Canadian harpist Elaine Kelly-Canning, Irish Chamber brass and string players and 27 members of the Kilkenny choir. Brian Cash, Elis Czerniak & Tim Czerniak, make up Halves.