Label: Temporary Residence Ltd Catologue Number: TRR121
Format: CD
Date: 2000
Style: Alternative / Post Rock
Rating: 7/10
Reviewer: Sidney James
For of those of you who don’t know Mono are a Japanese post rock band and a rather fine one at that. Gone is a collection of rare tracks and is really geared towards the hardcore fan rather than the new listener.
Although pretty much a band within a genre rather than pushing the boundaries, Mono still have the edge over their rivals. There is none of the haphazard fumbling of Explosions in the Sky or the post metal grunting of Isis and Red Sparrows. Instead Mono seem to manage to pull off a tight and well constructed balance of glacier shimmering guitars and a strong but not overbearing rhythmic undertow producing an ebbing almost religious intensity.
This approach is best highlighted on the tracks such as Black Rain which never bores in its 9:15 glory. The purely cello based Rainbow is another highlight showing the Mono can do beautiful and epic without relying on a host of effects pedals.
If there is a weakness with the album is that the earlier material is pretty much by post rock by numbers and indistinguishable for other bands of their ilk. Neither is any of the material particularly groundbreaking but Mono get away with it as they do a damn good job of expressing some emotion in an usually expressionless genre.
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