Dungen in: Procul Harum Redux!

Dun­gen’s third Amer­i­can tour sup­port­ing Ta Det Lugnt did­n’t go off with­out a hitch. Thanks to an equip­ment fail­ure, we were treat­ed to a beau­ti­ful, stripped down ver­sion of “Du är för fin för mig” with Gus­tav play­ing keys solo. The need for new mate­r­i­al becomes clear­er as Dun­gen con­tin­ue to flesh out the nascent Deep Pur­ple, Procul Harum and Gen­tle Giant strains in their long­form, impro­vised material.

Unlike their last vis­it, which was lush, com­plex and fea­tured well-rehearsed, new arrange­ments, Dun­gen’s per­for­mance seemed a lit­tle uncer­tain and ten­ta­tive at times. The near sell­out crowd was nev­er­the­less enthu­si­as­tic for “Pan­da”, “Ta Det Lugnt” and “Fes­ti­val”, but the cool recep­tion to a new pop-psych song high­light­ed the del­i­cate bal­ance between those gen­res and sen­si­bil­i­ties that set Ta Det Lugnt apart from more eso­teric psy­ch­folk, yet locat­ed them with­in that scene. It’s inter­est­ing that their last two Philadel­phia shows had them min­ing pro­to-met­al mate­r­i­al: in fact, the last time they played they hint­ed at Deep Pur­ple’s “Hush”. If Est­jes choos­es to fea­ture more flute and keys, they could begin to incor­po­rate heav­ier ele­ments and appro­pri­ate Jethro Tul­l’s sound too.

But com­mer­cial pres­sures, com­bined with Gus­tav Est­jes’ inter­est in mak­ing more com­pli­cat­ed, mul­ti-lay­ered melodies, may make Dun­gen’s next move unpredictable…and hope­ful­ly more interesting.