'Jag tror du förstår...'

#16 Ta Det Lugnt - Dungen (Subliminal Sounds, 2004)


A little over 1 year ago through a series of events I discovered that there was going to be this portal opening at a certain time on a specific day at a definite locale, a gap in the space-time continuum lets say. Well, one other person from this blog happened to be in town that night and was in a desperate mood to take a trip...................where?....................We came back through as time once again aligned an hour and a half later. We had gone back 35 years and ended up in Sweden of all places.

We moved to our current house a little over 2 years ago and the first music related thing I did after hooking up the computer was to check out this Swedish psych/folk band led by one Gustav Ejstes. I heard a couple clips off their Stadsvandrigar ('city walks') album which had been released 2 years prior and it seemed to set a scenery of a land full of greenery and flutes. I tracked down the import for a big chunk of change and knew they had another album coming within the next month. After a month of frolicking with this release I was foaming waiting for another import.

Well, Sugar Mama and I love the '70's Swedish psych band Trad Gras Och Stenar but this guy was too much. Ta Det Lugnt ('take it easy') was like the best of the Beatles pop thrown into a Swedish Prog-Rock anarchy gathering in the woods. Most of the albums on my list can stop me in my tracks either bc of the music or nostalgia or both but when I got home and put this on with little light to see I was speechless. I kept getting up and pacing around...this was made today? Are you kidding? I didn't know what the next track would bring. Jazz drumming freakouts ('panda'), beautiful strings and pop for 4 min. that would turn into him going total fuzz/soloing and blowing out his amp for the final 4min. ('du e for fin for mig'), organ riffs with more fuzz and huge drum rolls for another 4min. then a sax/jazz outro ('ta det lugnt'), to a 'skating'-(charlie brown christmas) clone with gorgeous delayed piano (det du tanker...').

The freakiest thing about this music was the fact that he wrote all of it and played most of it himself. After about 2 weeks of this I said to myself this is going to be one of my favs until I cant dance anymore, so I went out and got the vinyl and actually thought about getting 2 as I knew they only pressed 500. They've since been signed stateside-for better or worse. My dad was recently here and he wanted to hear what was going up on my list. He had just finished spinning records and blowing out my/his speakers (from college) with The Beach Boys Shut Down Vol. 2, Clapton, the Moody Blues, etc. After I played an album that has yet to appear on this list he took a front row seat and sat through the whole thing and dug it. I dig but can't put it higher bc its so young and such a sin to listen to unless you're willing to lose a little more of one of your senses.