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Mono
WALKING CLOUD AND DEEP RED SKY, FLAG FLUTTERED AND THE SUN SHINED
(Temporary Residence Ltd.)
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Sure, the title sounds like something avant-folk songwriter Devendra Banhart might come up with, but this all-instrumental Japanese outfit has almost nothing in common with the lyric-driven verbal surrealist. Except, perhaps, that Mono’s brooding soundscapes and distortion-is-bliss approach conjure Banhart mentor Michael Gira’s Swans. And there’s a Banhart-like sense of pastoral desolation, an epic pathos to the searching, string-and-piano-tinted explorations "Lost Snow" and "2 Candles, 1 Wish." But when the calm blue skies give way to the crashing black thunder and torrents of raining feedback that accompany "Halcyon (Beautiful Days)" and "16.12," Mono have far more to do with cinematic sonic pilgrims like Mogwai and Godspeed You Black Emperor. Although they’ve been lumped in with the stoner-metal masses, the post-rock crowd, and the noisecore contingent, on their third CD (produced by fellow noisemonger and one-time tour mate Steve Albini), Mono sculpt fearsome, majestic slabs of thought and expression whose power and beauty reach beyond silly hipster genre tags. Any outfit that lists Sonic Youth and Beethoven as influences is going to be hard to pin down. But isn’t that the point? (Mono headline T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline Street in Central Square next Friday, April 8 with Eluvium, Caspian, and Seneca; call 617-492-BEAR)
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