Crime + The City Solution – Shine LP Mute Records

Limited gold colored vinyl LP pressing. Reissue. A band out of time, Crime & the City Solution were perennial outsiders who could not rest in their native Australia, and instead found inspiration in the colder climes of London and Berlin. Their mesmeric, expressive music evolved through many incarnations and a great deal of adversity. The first incarnation of the band appeared in 1977/78, in the midst of Australia’s nascent punk scene and re- grouped in London in 1984. After the departure of the Rowland brothers and Epic Soundtracks, the line-up settled upon the making of Shine with singer Simon Bonney, Einstürzende Neubauten’s guitarist Alexander Hacke, DAF’s synth player Chrislo Haas, jazz bassist Thomas Stern, violinist Bronwyn Adams and Bad Seed’s Mick Harvey on drums. With the departure of Soundtracks and the Howard brothers for the formation of These Immortal Souls, Bonney, Harvey and Adams settled in Berlin. Here they called upon Thomas Stern, Bronwyn Adams, DAF’s Chrislo Haas and Einstürzende Neubauten’s guitarist Alexander Hacke to create Shine. The album was recorded at Hansa Tonstudio in the second half of 1987 and later released in 1988. Shine was more finely tuned, optimistic and delicately abrasive, with the reconstructed line-up admirably marrying Hacke’s post-punk-into-blues guitar with Adam’s feathered violin and Bonney’s gruff vocals.