The Shining Path is the 'rock band' version of minimalist duo Ilya Monosov and Preston Swirnoff. Like This Heat or Metabolist, The Shining Path are a Can/Faust-loving group that also exhales expansive psychedelic guitar excess with hints of Greg Ginn and the High Rise discography while tripping balls to a violent, throbbing, not-always-sosteady, Suicide-like rhythm.

The 7" contains two raw, noisy, ecstatic live recordings from some of the very rare live shows The Shining Path played in San Diego in 2005. Both tracks are raw and relentless ... a taste of what can happen when punks get psychedelic. A blown out krautrock, wild noise space rock frenzy, some baffling mix of Can, Hawkwind, High Rise and Suicide - melting minds and destroying speakers.

The additional multimedia CD features the two 7" tracks along with another livetrack, 'Full Throttle Lover', and four exclusive videos of The Shining Path playing live. Highly recommended viewing!

VERY limited edition package of numbered white vinyl 7" and multimedia CD. In full colour wraparound picture sleeve. View Image

Apr 2008, TR010.

Live at the Voltaire Commune
Lonely hearts

Support :

Record of the week - Piccadilly Records

High end drone tones and noise scree that emits an enveloping almost vocal-like tone. This is a really good example of the creative use of noise. One that's sculpted rather than just blasted hell-for leather. The tones just cycle around and around creating a trance like vista that's beautiful in colour and deft in it's touches. Highly recommended!
Norman Records


The Shining Path is the psych rock alter ego minimalist experimental duo Ilya Monosov and Preston Swirnoff, and in the past we've raved about their blown out kraut flecked space rock. This new 7" captures the group live in 2005, two tracks from one of their very rare live performances.

The opener is a deep slow burning dirge, glistening and glowing, the sound of a planet slowly drifting into the orbit of a collapsing sun, guitars swirl and soar, grind and growl, effulgent and resplendent. This is drone rock rendered almost static, the riffs crawl, the bass throbs, the whole track creeps, or more appropriately, floats weightless, in a cloud of layered red hot psych guitar, spit out in thick glowing gouts, shot through with feedback, it's like High Rise covering Stars Of The Lid!

The second track is a bit more rocking, the drums and bass locked into a motorik groove, while the guitar, still super distorted and blown out, spits out riffs in sudden bursts, eventually coalescing into one constant stream of psychfuzz, pelted by fragments of super effected vocals, strange little squalls of FX, and then the bass gets all dubbed out, bouncing back and forth beneath the buzz and fuzz.

Like all Trensmat 7"s, the vinyl comes bundled with a bonus cd-r, this one featuring an extra live track, a heavy rocker, with some serious riffing and harmonica (!), as well as four live videos from various performances, nicely filmed, cool effects, tripped out lighting, and most importantly, more awesome music, with bleated sax, moaning horns, droney raga-like buzz, chanted vocals, creepy ambience, thick walls of guitars, rumbling throbbing bass, all woven into some seriously spaced out psychedelic dronerock.
Aquarius Records


The words f**king awesome don't even begin to describe this titanic trio of scarred psyche stew, the Shining Path over the course of these tracks craft out a colossal display of out there and into the centre of the eye of oblivion goo. In some respects we suspect that Trensmat are buttering us up for the arrival of the aforementioned Acid Mothers and Mudhoney platters because at times these formidable forays into the dark heart of stoner psyche sound like the bastard off spring of an illicit bunk up between the two.

Freewheeling between hulking expanses of white hot mind expanding lysergic blues set amid a cauldron of cranium crunching bastardised kraut rock accents - as on the wasted and volcanic scuzz fuzz hip grinding 'lonely hearts' - and acid dipped feedback squalling drone mesmerics (as on the ravaged 'live at the Voltaire commune'). The Shining Path adeptly display their resourcefulness at being able to hot wire and mould the varying facets of deep psyche, out there atmospherics, stoned out space rock dialects and all out full assault up close and personal bone rattling boogie (the fiercesomely cacophonic feedback maelstrom of the uncompromising harmonica fried Sabbath meets Les Rallizes Denudes 'full throttle lover' which space cadets has to be heard to be believed).

Adopting a take no prisoners philosophy this damaged babe of a release is all at once wilfully punishing, violent, unrelenting, wired and bugger me if I didn't know any better but groovy as f**k. Tin hats optional. Absolutely essential.
Losing Today