great to listen, highly recommended
Background:
“First period”
Shining was formed in 1999 by Jørgen Munkeby (guitar, sax and various instruments) when he moved from his hometown of Tønsberg to Oslo to study in the Norwegian State Academy of Music. As he has been playing in bands ever since he was ten years old, he wished to form a new one in Oslo. In this new school there was a good opportunity for him to choose musicians for this project of his and he chose three he thought to be the best.<!--more--> This new band started playing Jørgen’s music he wrote for the band and also performed in several shows as a support band, in which Jørgen says the band gave highly energetic shows, playing loud and fast. In 2001 the band released their first album, Where The Ragged People Go on “bp Records”, and in 2003 after a tour in China, they released Sweet Shanghai Devil on “Jazzland Records”. These two albums are strictly acoustic jazz music, with much improvisation and with a hardcore feeling which is due to the way they were recorded – “Ragged was recorded with only two microphones, S S Devil with three”. Jørgen say that they set themselves rules of how they should and should not play. However by the time they released those two albums, they felt those rules are too restricting for them, preventing them to do something else, more varied.
“Second period”
Since the band members were playing and composing in other bands as well (for instance, Jørgen and Morten playing in Jaga Jazzist) they were exposed and experienced in playing other types of music. For their next album they used as many instruments as they could, and took advantage of everything they could in studios to get the mixed genre result that is In the Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be a Monster, which was released through Rune Grammofon in 2005. Shining’s lineup was reinforced after that album with a new bassist and keyboards player (Andreas Schei from Jaga Jazzist). 2007 sees the release of Grindstone which continues Kingdom’s sound and progresses from it as well.
Music:
In their two albums, In the Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be a Monster and Grindstone, once you get passed the aggressiveness and noisy parts, and give the album a proper listen, you will realize there is a lot that is missed on initial listening. Additional layers of music reveal themselves, more instruments are heard through all the seeming chaos and various styles of music manifest themselves throughout the tracks.
You start to appreciate their ability to create levels inside their music that become apparent as you train your ears with their albums. It can be brutal at times, but it is also melodic (and even Kitschy…). The instrumental music in one track can be this aggressive type mentioned or can be a more amorphic and experimental while in others you hear a minor jazz influence. All in all, they created their own sound. The music is complex, shifting a lot throughout the track, many odd time signatures which alternate, use of a variety of sounds to create their style, and at times gets quite heavy (not in a classic metal kind). It is however a varied album and the tracks, while having a thread connecting between them in terms of their sound and spirit, each has its special place and identity and is different from the others.
When looking at the musicians, composers and bands that they state as their influence, one gets the idea of how they got to their present sound.
It is well worth the time to look over the new for interviews with the band and Jørgen and read about their influences, their early time together and about small anecdotes like the song titles.
The following is taken from the press release of Grindstone and it is one paragraph shortly giving the musical background of the band:
“The press dropped many names when trying to place Shining´s previous album on the musical map, from The Mars Volta and Slayer via King Crimson and Mahavishnu Orchestra to Henry Cow, This Heat, Ornette Coleman, Ligeti and Messiaen. One thing they all agreed on was the striking originality of this young group who had gone through a radical transition from starting out as a postbop jazz quartet. With ”In The Kingdom Of Kitsch You Will Be A Monster” they tried to squeeze in as much as they could, but masterful editing and production from Kåre Chr. Vestrheim made it all stick together in a very convincing way. Vestrheim is also the producer of this album.”
(Source: progarchives)
In the Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be a Monster (2005)
1. Goretex Weather Report (5:00)
2. REDRUM (1:37)
3. Romani (3:19)
4. Perdurabo (3:02)
5. Aleister Explains Everything (3:23)
6. 31=300=20 (It Is by Will Alone I Set My Mind in Motion) (4:24)
7. Where Death Comes to Cry (2:22)
8. The Smoking Dog (3:57)
9. Magazine RWRK (6:32)
10. You Can Try the Best You Can (5:21)
Total time: 38:57
CODE
http://rapidshare.com/files/105879104/2005_-_In_the_kingdom_of_kitsch_you_will_be_a_monster.rar
CBR 192, Stereo
Grindstone (2007)
1. In The Kingdom Of Kitsch You Will Be A Monster (5:40)
2. Winterreise (3:33)
3. Stalemate Longan Runner (4:15)
4. To Be Proud Of Crystal Colors Is To Live Again (0:49)
5. Moonchild Mindgames (3:06)
6. The Red Room (2:16)
7. Asa Nisi Masa (1:52)
8. To Be Proud Of Crystal Colors Is To Live Again (1:09)
9. Psalm (7:20)
10. -... .- -.-. .... (2:07)
11. 1:4:9 (5:03)
12. Fight Dusk With Dawn (6:53)
Total time: 44:03
CODE
http://rapidshare.com/files/107730600/2007_-_Grindstone.rar
VBR
She probably has a sensible policy of not meeting random strangers from the internet IRL. I can't blame her...for all she knows, I could be Kalmia.
