Shit and Shine

Shit and Shine

Shit and Shine, also known as $hit & $hine and $&$, is a noise and experimental project led by drummer Craig Clouse. It begins in London in 2004 and later relocates to Austin, Texas, with Clouse and the group moving there in 2010. The act has an ever-changing line-up, often with several drummers at once, and includes collaborators from the UK and Texas.

Style and formation

The project centres on noise, hard electronics, drone, experimental rock and noise rock, with later work also moving through industrial techno and electronic forms. Clouse builds the music around humour, samples and dense multi-drummer arrangements, which help distinguish it from more standard noise and experimental acts. The group’s first release is You’re Lucky to Have Friends Like Us, which appears in 2004, the same year the project is conceived.

Releases and label history

Shit and Shine develops a cult following through live shows built around a single riff and multiple drummers. It also issues two sold-out releases on Riot Season and Latitudes before Clouse is signed to Powell’s Diagonal label. On Diagonal, he releases the four-track EP DIAG004 in 2013, followed by the albums Powder Horn in 2014 and 54 Synth-Brass, 38 Metal Guitar, 65 Cathedral in 2015.

Later direction

These records broaden the project’s palette, bringing in elements associated with jazz, metal, techno, and even 1980s pop and disco, often without treating those references conventionally. In 2016, Shit and Shine releases Teardrops, a straight grindcore album that follows a period in which the project has already attracted attention for its less noisy electronic material.