I’m always hard-pressed to answer the question: what rock music are you listening to? I find most contemporary bands either insufferably boring or reductive. I suppose you could extend that same derision to Dungen, whose pastoral, flute-laced orchestrations takes their cues from Parson Sound, Hendrix, and dozens of obscure Nordic psychedelic connoisseurs. Most people haven’t heard of Dungen, so I just tell them that they sound like Tame Impala. People love Tame Impala. I like them a lot too, but Dungen is my favorite working band.
If Gustav Estjes sang in English, I imagine he’d be very popular. Inside, he’s content to sequester himself in the Swedish forest, smoking trees and listening to Madlib records and 90s hip hop. He is a man for my own hjarta. This video is for a song released two years ago. Dungen is only getting around to releasing it now. They truly don’t give a fuck. They aren’t responsive to trends or the need to tour, they seem like they just want to continue snatching raw forms out of the air and inventing new shades of color.
