Dungen - 'Tio Bitar' (Subliminal Sounds) Released 21/05/07

For all the obvious benefits of crafting a genuine five-star masterwork that transforms a band from a domestic cult act to an internationally revered champs of super-charged psych-rock, there's downsides too. Such as, how the hell do you follow it up? It's a dilemma Dungen have been faced with following the success of 2004's mind-blowing 'Ta Det Lungt', possibly the greatest musical export from Sweden since the Muppets' singing chef. Initial encounters with the results are underwhelming. The countless items Dungen's overdub-orientated musical mosaic is assembled from refuse to gel at first, whilst the tunes seem pedestrian, stuck on the pavement where they should soar high above the ground.

Keep in mind, though, that Dungen are not in the business of instant gratification. Theirs is a rich, multi-layered sound that demands time and concentration to reveal its full scope, and what initially resembles a an clunky assortment of misshaped pieces, the seams showing where they should've been smoothed over with some judicious wizardy at the mixing desk, eventually blooms into glorious widescreen blaze with breathtaking thrills and captivating detail to spare.

Many familiar hallmarks of the Dungen sound remain intact. Multi-instrumentalist-singer-songwriter-producer Gustav Ejstes persists with singing in Swedish, rendering the lyric sheet incomprehensible for the majority of listeners. You'd still suspect Ejstes keeps classic Who and Led Zep vinyl underneath his pillow for guidance, whilst guitar whizz Reine Fiske lets rip with amp-busting intent like Jimi Hendrix reincarnated, left-field instrumentation - flutes, fiddles, vintage keyboards - flutters in and out of the mix and Johan Helmegard's hyperactive, loose yet precise drumbeats make speed limit-ignoring vintage sticksmen ala Keith Moon and Ginger Baker sound subdued in comparison.

So far, so 1960's, but what catapults Dungen light-years ahead of their fellow psych fiends is how unmistakably now this stuff sounds. The way endlessly evolving tracks such as the stunning 'Familj', possibly Dungen's mightiest moment to date, and 'Sa Blev Det Bestamt's haunting union of Beatles-ian balladry, Hammond-heavy breakdowns and raga guitar hop smoothly from one infectious melody and heady instrumental passage to next has more in common with cutting edge sampledelica than backwards-gazing retroisms, which isn't that surprising considering Ejstes's keen interest in hip hop. Elsewhere, the fierce yet agile grooves never let up as 'Gor Det Nu' and ‘Mon Amour' push the band's sharpened pop chops to the fore with riff-sprouting gusto, whilst the hypnotic instrumental 'C Visar Vagen' treks a spine-tingling path between soothing rustic folk and cosmos-straddling space-rock.

Best of all, the lush closer 'En Gang I Ar Kom Det En Tar' manages to salute David Axelrod's luxurious mini-symphonies and musty Scandinavian MOR simultaneously, resulting in an epic that throbs and swoons like the lavish backing track to a vintage Eurovision entry, had the song contest ever been characterised by hipness-dripping beauty as opposed to stinky cheesefests. Härlig, as the Swedes say.