Exhault! Tonight I drink warm beers and stare straight ahead. The concrete sits a few feet away from my eyes. It's sadly cracked and illuminated from one unshaded 60 watt bulb overhead. "The Shining Path." The Bruces. A certain person. He has slowly been releasing songs since the heydays of 1994, and in 10 years he has come some way. From the demos of the instant faded classic cassette, "Family Day" (that was stolen and released by eager friends), and since... My ears have sprouted radar/sonar for the soft strum and stories belted out in loose molds. On "The Shining Path," Alex McManus jumps above and beyond previous installments. A steady feeling of contentment, wavering acoustics, and a barrage of instrumentation that is necessarily unnecessary. That is to say, it's effective and motive. Because above all sits the sincerity of the voice and the skewed melody of wordlpaly. Near poetic sounds of keys turning in locks; mechanics made of wood; a distant hill that is too small for a king, but could contain a castle. 7/10 -- Chris Fischer (11 June, 2005)