Is post rock dead? Local label Sensory Projects doesn’ think so as it seems to delight in repeatedly uncovering new exponents of the genre who are approaching it in strange and innovative ways. And let’s be honest innovation rarely occurs in dead sub genres. Mono are about light and shade. It’s incredible, the way they play even their initial soft subtle moments, because somehow you know exactly where it’s going to end up. Usually that would be a problem but not in the case of Mono. It feels like they are actively using this tension, delighting in stringing the listener out before slowly building texturally and in volume into the raw blazing bliss that exceeds your initial expectations. This is searing orchestral post rock, where this Japanese instrumental four piece plus additional strings actively take their music to the next level with epic ten minute plus excursions, with peaks and valleys, with incredible subtlety and an astounding capacity for violence. It was recorded and mixed by Steve Albini so it’s no surprise that You Are There seems to so effortlessly capture the live intensity of the band. After Mogwai, repetitive gentle riffing that builds into a fireball seemed somewhat passé, though Mono have a way of exuding a sense of fragility and space early on so you are captured in the emotion and almost oblivious to what they are doing structurally. And of course by the time you realize you are halfway there, actively willing them onwards as they reach upwards and beyond into ecstatic intensity.
Bob Baker Fish
