Those of us without a giddy disposition have possibly marvelled at a recent music video of Shining performing live at Trolltunga – The Devils Tongue which juts precariously off a mountain over a massive glaciated valley near Bergen Norway. It’s a real dizzying place to risk life and limb performing your art and you wouldn’t catch most bands doing this sort of thing in a million years. But that’s how Jørgen Munkeby’s black jazz crew have always rolled with their music making you just as spinning in the head department as the views from such elevated positions. Their first four albums relatively made no impact over here even if they got a release outside Scandinavia but the band burst upon the scene with their 2010 opus Black Jazz confounding and confusing people from the off and even more so as far as a few of us expecting to see Niklas Kvarforth Swedish Shining entertaining us when Enslaved brought the Norse crew over to our shores in support. It was all good though, their version of 20th Century Schizoid Man for starters virtually outdoing the King Crimson classic. With follow up album One, One, One taking things to further extremes and various visits to our shores including a particularly memorable show at Damnation Festival, Shining had well and truly made their mark so their new album was a very welcome arrival that I was very keen to hear.
Looking at the excellently designed yellow and black album art courtesy of Trine and Kim Design and pressing play to be rewarded with the first blast of skronky sax it’s obvious which Shining you have before you. ‘Admittance’ gained via this spiralling solo and rolling drum piece we are well and truly in the Worldwide Blackjazz Zone as the band groove on down into ‘The Last Stand.’ One thing I have noticed more on this album than the ones before it is the familiarity of songs like this one to Nine Inch Nails. Vocally Munkeby really has got his Reznor on here and so have the band musically to a large extent. Listening to this I quickly found that this and some of the other tracks here had a bit more structure to them than going off all over the shop like the band are renowned for. Yes this is a bit more straightforward, the sax is still present wailing around and the manic riffs build up into a humungous clamour but the backbone is, dare I say a bit more accessible with the hooks and claws of the chorus. You can forget all about commerciality and radio play as they inflame us with ‘Burn It All’ though. This is a swearathon of RATM proportions ‘fuck’ count around the 19 mark! After a brooding start it literally explodes into an indignant stomper that reminds of Marilyn Manson ‘Antichrist’ era. Luckily it has a bit more substance than those throwaway tunes of old and I can’t see the kids in the playground charging into pits and making it their new anthem when the band play it live. Cynic that I may be, it left me with a shit-eating grin and banging my head along from very first exposure and I duly noted it’s far too abrasive a track as it builds up and implodes for the commercial masses.
The tracks on the whole blend into each other without any pause between, something I like as an exception to the rule when done properly and here it is. The bouncy hop, skip and jump (don’t try that on a mountain overhang) of ‘Last Day’ gets its chops in and even throws some sassy harmonica into the mix as it eclectically goes from addictive chorus to more experimental instrumental licks. Piano and sax join in before Knutsen’s NIN etched keyboard sound again powers away with the addictive chorus. As the album continues it does seem like there is a real duality going down even a battle between off the wall and out there time signatures, changes and choppy avant-garde weirdness and a band on the edge of trying to be being conventional in their structuring. It works well though and kind of gives the best of both worlds. Nothing standard would allow a drum solo in the middle of a track but that’s exactly what we get here and the skewed nature of the beast still contains plenty of head spinning round 360 degree moments keeping you well and truly on your toes. Instrumental ‘House Of Warship’ is like some dark Lynchian – Burroughs nightmare on smack with the sax bringing some real jazzy expressionism to the album before Jergen takes ‘House Of Control’ into an emotional croon on a song that actually reminds a bit of The Beatles in its slow burning harmony. Really putting the boot in for a final flourish ‘Need’ is left to fling everything at the listener bringing the album to a suitably manic and hefty conclusion and leaving you wondering if silence will ever quite sound the same again. As for the black jazz society itself consider me signed up and hopefully joining other enthusiasts as the band bring the show to town.
(8.5/10 Pete Woods)
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