In my review of Norway’s Oya Festival I said: “A whole other crowd of Norwegian bands - Shining, the Thing, Cloroform - trained in jazz, but grew up with metal and electronic music. On stage, at various points over the weekend, they flip jazz on its head, tearing through sets that have as much to do with the Sonics, Pantera, and Squarepusher as Ornette Coleman. The ex-Jaga Jazzist members of Shining play something that’s equally jazz and metal, with a bit of electronics, but if I’m to be honest, it’s really progressive rock. There I’ve said it, they play the much maligned sound, but it doesn’t sound fatty or over the top, when it connects, it is hot. Frontman Jorgen Munkeby says to the crowd: ‘This is our last show in Norway for a while, we’ll be touring Europe. And looking out at all you pretty girls, we’re sad, because it’ll just be nerdy guys in Europe.’”

Read my (very long) interview with the Norwegian band at Cyclic Defrost. Like their music, it jumps around from idea to idea, and goes on for a hell of a lot of words, but that’s part of the beauty of a Q&A and the band had a lot to say. If you’re not down for that however, I’ll be writing it up as a shorter feature interview for the next Cyclic Defrost print magazine.

If you have no idea what/who they are, go to your local good record shop or download hub and have a listen, or go to Shining’s website and have a listen.