Dynamo Bliss 2013
Swedish trio looking for fun and a good pun go environmentally mental. Breathe the air, then.
Poplar Music
Getting it together in the country has been art rock’s creative refuge since the late ’60s, and on their second album – first of the two the trio put out in 2013 – this band veer away from the perceived wisdom of the genre’s complexity to convey simpler ways. Such an ingenious and indigenous move provided them with an opportunity to turn back the time to the decade of innocence and bake the sunshine harmonies from “Can You Hear The Sound” on to the fusion of “Running Out Of Mind” adding a thin psychedelic icing to the sweet cake where zither and banjo are as important ingredients as guitars. That’s how the reversed evolution depicted in “Savage Minds” takes a turn to the twangy rhythm-and-blues and lets its electrically funky poise passing urgent catchiness to “Panic In Their Eyes” until the folk seriousness of “Been Ostracized” drive the naysayers away – into the loner’s wild.
There, Mikael Sandstrom’s pedal steel pour cosmic earthiness into the brew of “Over The Rolling Hills” with its rustic accordion anchor and orchestral expanse, while Stefan Olofsson’s voice, both assertive and lulling, is a perfect vehicle for the warped serenity of “Blue Halos” to crystallize its Scandinavian gloss into a lollipop, yet not before progressive synthesizer runs wash around “And Forever” that’s also sprinkled with stately piano and mellotron. They’re back for the epic grand finale “In The Country” which lures all the gentle souls to the pastures and the woods and lifts the pastoral tune to the celestial heights with birds, and THE BYRDS, fluttering nearby. The result of it all is a heart-gripping airy tale or a cure for the modern times.
****4/5
