Shining ~ In The Kingdom Of Kitsch You Will Be A Monster
While you’re
trying to work out whether the album title is a compliment or an insult, you
could do worse than subject yourself to the strident jazz me(n)tal of first
track Goretex Weather Report which pits a crowd of guitar-thrashing harridans
against a tuned wine glass melody. A rancorous, little devil on my left shoulder
wants to report that Rune Grammofon has crested its artistic peak and is now
past its prime. Its adversary on my right however is glad to report that the
Shining singularly lacks any evidence of such a decline. Comprising a couple
of former members of Jagga Jazzist, the quintet offers up all manner of exotic
hybrids, including leftfield jazz, rock, heavy metal, melodramatic film soundtracks
and invigorating doses of noise. The result is raucous and unpredictable,
but far from the messy headache one might suspect from reading such a list
of ingredients. From the fluttering clarinet/male choir duet of Romani to
the spooked, séance-like otherness of 31=300=20, Shining convince,
surprise and don’t outstay their welcome for a second.
Colin Buttimer
February 2005