Japanese band Mono says it ain’t so with no words

Upon a first listen to Mono’s brand new album For my Parents, we the listeners embark on a familiar path that’s meandered through the group’s five preceding offerings and ten-plus year career – swelling fields of swooning sonics that glacially crest over breaking waves hitting a deserted moonlit shore.

Guitarist and principal songwriter Takaakira "Taka" Goto helms Mono’s two six-string, bass, and drum attack, pulling the reins on his band’s slow-fast, quiet-loud dichotomy since they first emerged in 1999 at the tail-end of the post-rock craze best epitomized by the jugular tones of our very own Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Whereas outfits like GY!BE can rely on their strength in musician numbers, MONO has often fallen back on their core of four thus sometimes limiting the range and diversity of their instrumental rock sagas.

While staleness has ensued on occasion, Mono have turned to friends to spice up their musical life, most often in the form of real, live orchestras. To celebrate their first decade together, the band were joined on stage in New York by the twenty-five person army  Wordless Orchestra (most excellently captured on the DVD release Holy Ground), while on their latest platter The Holy Ground Orchestra bring the songs to heights often unheard.

Whatever your verdict is on their signature sound, one thing that’s certain is Mono’s commitment to their craft, infusing true emotion and love into what they do on vinyl, and more importantly on stage. Few bands have developed such a large international cult following as Mono, tirelessly trekking the globe in search of every last one of their fans, always on the lookout to convert the new.

Mono
September 13 | Il Motore
179, Jean-Talon W.
with Chris Brokaw
monoishere.com