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by Bootleg Al Japanese AND post-rock?! Now that has success written all over it! Full of anticipation we rock up to Bristol’s new premier gig dive ‘The Cooler’ with barely moments to spare before Mono arrive on stage. Not that I noticed when they did arrive. You see Post-Rock fans = big bearded men. Times this with the fact that the stage is non-existent and the band are all no taller than 5 and a half foot means I can’t see a bloody thing. Not to worry it isn’t a Guns n’ Roses gig (thank god) and I’m more than content to purely stand back and let the waves of delicate guitar and minimal piano wash over me with a blend of calm relaxation and tranquillity. Then the cymbals of The Flames Beyond the Cold Mountain kick in, clattering away as I begin to lose myself in a world of reduced motion and peace, building up to a crescendo of crashing drums that violently awaken me from my state as ‘power animal’. Now I’m thrust 10,000 feet in the air free-falling down towards a monstrous ice-cap, freezing air blowing in my face at over 100mph, all I can see is white, a rich reflective white as I hurtle further and further towards the earth, no time to scream, no time to regret, only time to reminisce upon the joy of life and the beauty of nature. Hailing from Tokyo, Mono make instrumental music that is both brutal and exhilarating and yet overtly demanding at the same time. For the 75 minutes that Mono rule the stage nothing matters. I can barely move for the sheer force of the walls of sound being thrown at me. And just when I think I can’t handle anymore they build it up again for a second attack, a second whip of force. Guitars wailing louder and louder, mountains collapsing around me, is that the four housemen of the apocalypse I see charging through the pillar of dry-ice? And as the band finally exits stage right we’re all left standing in awe, jaws stuck firmly to the floor, all hanging on for that final dying attack of feedback. There isn’t a dry eye in the house. Between Boris and Mono there’s an exciting sound coming out of Japan at the moment. A sound that was harboured in the States in the mid 90s but has returned with a vengeance and a potency that we never thought was possible. It’s the sound of the new Japanese underground. A thriving underground of sonic noise that WILL destroy you.
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MONO