Now on its fourth album, the Shiny Times solo project of Kim Weldin would probably be considered her ‘primary gig’ if it was not for the sheer success of the more lucid, jangle gaze aesthetic of the Tape Waves she performs in with her husband, Jarod Weldin.

Shiny Times always feels like a vehicle for this artist to get her ‘obtuse’ on, perhaps to cleanse herself from getting just a tad too mainstream for her liking. It’s no less beautiful than the Tapes Waves vibe, but such a sense of stunning derives from infinitely more untraditional musical contexts and structures.

As such, Memory Dumpster is separated by subtle shifts in texture rather than any deviation in quality. Initially, Only Me and Promising, Destroying seem to crumble fuzz and drone into each other to make a melancholic gaze-like purr that only serves to accentuate the perfect ease in which Weldin seems able to let flighty melodies emerge from the noise, whilst augmenting the entire aesthetic with a The Gabys style essence that twists uncomfortable beauty out of vocal illegibility.

However, the very best of Shiny Times is heard in Carry On, Disappear You, and Heavy Weight. Here the gaze inflections, whilst always omnipresent, are merged with a lo-fi propensity that simultaneously hints at aloofness and spectral while being propelled by a perversely prominent percussion.

Shiny Times / Kim Weldin is always special sound and this Memory Dumpster EP is arguably her best yet.

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