Mono

 My Favorite Post Rock Band

From Japan, I've been enjoying the music of this Post Rock band since I first discovered them upon my re-entry into Prog World in 2008. Their mastery of tremolo guitar leads, soul-piercing melodies, sparse, prolonged intros, all building to wonderfully satisfying crescendos is unparalleled in the Post Rock world. And, despite some line-up changes over the years--and some experimentation with styles and producers--their musical output has remained fairly consistent while their quality has steadily improved.

MONO You Are There (2006)

(Formerly) My favorite of the MONO albums (before I heard the amazing The Last Dawn), I very much admire their overall approach to the Math Rock/Post Rock sub-genre: full of power and emotion, thick atmospheres with stellar instrumentalism. The guitar is especially powerful for its out-of-the-ordinary "soloing" feel as the pick or fingers rapidly, rhythmically pluck a single string while a single note sustains an then slides up or down the same string. Very talented. Drums entering at the high 'crescendo' parts are strong and yet do not overpower the guitars. Electric guitars in these parts are often very distorted.

Line-up / Musicians:
- Takaakira Goto / guitar, string arrangements
- Hideki Suematsu / guitar
- Tamaki Kunishi / bass
- Yasunori Takada / drums
With:
- Alison Chesley / cello
- Diana Parameter / cello
- Inger Peterson Carle / violin
- Thomas Yang / violin
- Susan Vøelz / violin, string arrangements

1. "The Flames Beyond the Cold Mountain" (13:29) (26/30)

2. "A Heart Has Asked for the Pleasure" (3:44) simple but pretty. (8.6666667/10)

3. "Yearning" (15:38) a long song that takes a few turns that almost lose me. As things begin to thicken and gain momentum in the seventh minute, I find the melodies quite satisfying despite the strings accompaniment sounding a bit like a Mellotron. Then the prerequisite calm comes at 7:30--but only briefly as the full wall of sound comes exploding back within 20 seconds--to great effect! I love the djenty low end (bass) and near-constant crash of cymbals. This tremolo guitarist is truly amazing! Then there is the unusual (for the Post Rock genre) prolonged comedown after the storm--a full two and a half minutes--to the song's finish.(26.75/30)

4. "Are You There?" (10:25) my first favorite Mono song. Such a starkly beautiful opening, two slow-builds and crescendos with another prolonged tender dénouement. (18/20)

5. "The Remains of the Day" (3:41) crowd noises and tremolo guitar in the background as child-like piano plays in the foreground. Very SIGUR RÓS-like. Beautiful if simple. (9/10)

6. "Moonlight" (13:04) gently tremoloed guitars with Fender Rhodes electric piano. Strings join in at the end of the third minute but they're a bit too uniform for my tastes--offering little that a keyboard couldn't provide. At 3:40 there is a return to the stark soundscape of two (or three) electric guitars interplaying. One goes tremolo while the other maintains the main melody and pace as the drummer begins to provide cymbal play. Female voice as if caught in a conversation in a café or kitchen appears in the background as drums and bass join in. The music is building as we reach the seventh minute--where the drums and orchestra issue full power (though not necessarily full dynamics). Walls of sound reach their fullest in the ninth minute but then the volume and power slowly begins to back off, one instrument at a time, until the tremolo-strumming distorted electric guitar is left as the main noise-maker. The main lead guitar maintains a constant dedication to the main melody to the end despite chaos and cacophony occurring in the genlty collapsing soundscape around him. Nice concept and construct though anchoring in that one melody for so long gets a bit monotonous. (22/25) 

Total Time 60:00

88.333 on the Fish scales = B/sold four stars; You Are There is an excellent addition to any prog lovers' music collection. 

MONO Hymn to the Immortal (2009)

Some may describe this album as "more of the same" from Japanese Post Rock/Math Rock maestros, Mono, and while it is similar or continuous with my favorite Mono album, 2006's You Are There, the music is still fresh and unique enough--and the Mono approach to Post Rock/Math Rock so pleasurable--that I still can only give this album my highest recommendation. It's great--and very emotional--when given your undivided attention, but also very pleasant as beautiful background music.

Line-up / Musicians:
- Takaakira Goto / guitar, string arranger
- Hideki Suematsu / guitar, Hammond B3
- Tamaki Kunishi / bass, piano, harpsichord, glockenspiel
- Yasunori Takada / drums, timpani, cymbals, glockenspiel
With:
- Jennifer Clippert / flute
- Mary Stoper / flute
- Dave Max Crawford / string conductor
- Paul Von Mertens / string conductor
- Strings ensemble / violins, violas, cellos & contrabass

1. "Ashes in the Snow" (11:46) standard Post Rock formula: soft opening, slow-build tsunami rise to full-scale crescendo, calm and repeat. Great second crescendo. (21.75/25)

2. "Burial at Sea" (10:39) more formulaic, albeit orchestrated, Post Rock. Built upon an okay melody. (17.25/20)

3. "Silent Flight, Sleeping Dawn" (6:00) a melodic favorite; very emotional. (9.125/10)

4. "Pure as Snow (Trails of the Winter Storm)" (11:26) spacious and delicate, even cinematic. (17.5/20)

5. "Follow the Map" (3:56) lap steel guitar leading the way over piano and lush strings orchestration. I like the way the band lets the strings step into the fore in the second half--Joe Hisaishi-like. (8.875/10)

6. "The Battle to Heaven" (12:51) droning guitar provides the background as guitar, bass, and drums gradually, slowly build a song around/above it. Low end note play leads the way for the first three minutes. I really like the "monstrous" uptake at 4:10. Nice drumming throughout. The song has nice swings and sways through different melodic octaves but overall it's a bit long/overextended. (21.75/25)

7. "Everlasting Light" (10:23) droning (tremoloed) electric guitar with near-classical piano playing over the top for the first two minutes. Awesome orchestral boost with the piano's "chorus" at the two-minute mark. When the rock instruments and orchestra build to the point of drowning out the piano (and almost the drums) it's pretty dramatic but not quite as melodic as some of their all-time great songs--though I do love the effect at the nine-minute mark when the high-end guitar playing drops to low (I can really hear the drums and orchestra then). (17.625/20)

Total Time 67:01

87.60 on the Fishscales = B/four stars; a wonderful aural experience. Great album art--one of the reasons I picked up the album in the first place. (This was my first Mono acquisition.) Definitely recommended to the Post Rock lover. 

MONO For My Parents (2012)

Master tremolo melody-maker Takaakira Goto issues a collection of songs contrived to bring up nostalgic themes that remind him of his parents.

Line-up / Musicians:
- Takaakira Goto / guitar
- Hideki Suematsu / guitar
- Tamaki Kunishi / bass, piano, glockenspiel
- Yasunori Takada / drums, timpani, gong, tubular bells, glockenspiel
With The Holy Ground Orchestra:
- Jeff Milarsky / conductor
- Yuki Numata, Courtney Orlando, Emily Ondracek, Patti Kilroy, Conrad Harris, Ben Russel, Caroline Shaw & Amanda Lo / violin
- Caleb Burhans, Nadia Sirota, Erin Wight & Jeanann Dara / viola
- Clarice Jensen, Brian Snow, Caitlin Sullivan & Laura Metcalf / cello
- Logan Coale / bass
- Shayna Dunkelman / timpani
- Yuri Yamashita / cymbals

1. "Legend" (11:51) sounds like a Russian promotional soundtrack extolling the virtues of their Siberian landscapes; very cinematic (it feels almost contrived to pull on psychological heartstrings). (21.25/25)

2. "Nostalgia" (12:05) the melodies here are a bit more engaging than the previous song but they're so simple and repeated to exhaustion despite the excellent build (too slow) and cataclysmic crescendo. (21.75/25) 

3. "Dream Odyssey" (8:03) piano and nylon-stringed guitar open this one (using the same pace and format as their other songs). After 90 seconds drums and electric guitar join in, gradually increasing their contributions. Very pretty and emotional. At 3:20 they start round two with electric guitar taking over the lead melody on its lower end. Very satisfying and complete if a little too simple. (13.5/15)

4. "Unseen Harbor" (14:04) another pleasant and nostalgic folk melody is built upon, over and over, with even a key change at 4:30 in the middle of the SIGUR RÓS-like orchestrally-expanded soundscape (which, to be honest, sounds a bit murky to my ears). Yasunori Takada's drum kit begins to play a more dynamic role after 5:40, but then everything cuts out and clears out at 6:40 for a two-guitar, strings-supported restart. Now this is quite stunning: the orchestra very clearly making their contributions heard--especially the timpani. At 9:05 the guitars shift gears, take up a different melody while one of them turns to exclusive tremolo style delivery. By the end of the eleventh minute the full band and orchestra have rejoined and the wave-like buildup to the crescendo gets serious with full tsunami flooding occurring from the 13th minute on. A pretty awesome composition. (27/30)

5. "A Quiet Place (Together We Go) (9:24) a song on which the orchestral parts have an even more significant contribution--sometimes even scored without any support or contribution from the rock instruments. I like the thought of Goto and company composing with orchestra first in mind rather than as an exclusively support animal (though this does make the music more classical/symphonic than rock 'n' roll). Beautiful song. (18/20)

Total Time 55:27

88.26 on the Fishscales = B/four stars; an excellent addition to any prog lover's music collection--especially if you enjoy solid, nostalgic, symphonic Post Rock. 

MONO The Last Dawn (2014)

How this band stays beneath the radar I have no clue. Master ‘storytellers’ with their musical soundscapes, their music is always meditative, deeply emotive and, despite seemingly 'simple' song structures, the band always performs at a flawless level. 

      I realize that Post Rock is not for everyone--and I rarely find a Post Rock album to be worthy of the "masterpiece of all-time" status—but this dedicated, focused, persevering Japanese band may have achieved such a status with this 2014 release. And, with the inclusion of its companion release, Rays of Darkness, the deal may be sealed. 

     As described on their Facebook page, The Last Dawn is the “lighter” of the two albums and probably the more melodic and “prettier” of the two. It also reveals a scaled-back, slimmer lineup of musicians when compared to their releases in the mid and late Naughties. Yet the two 2014 releases offer quite a variety of instrumental companions—piano, tuned percussives—all the while remaining firmly reliant on their one consistent and remarkable trait: the heavily effected tremolo strummed electric guitars of Hideki “Yoda” Suematsu and Takaakira “Taka” Goto. The influences of Minimalists like Henryk Górecki, soundtrack artists like Ennio Morricone and Lars von Trier, and shoe gaze innovators like Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie and My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields are quite evident throughout the album(s). 

Line-up / Musicians:
- Takaakira Goto / guitar
- - Hideki Suematsu / guitar
- Tamaki Kunishi / bass, piano, guitar, glockenspiel
- Yasunori Takada / drums & percussion, glockenspiel
With:
- Andrew Simpson / cello
- Danielle Karpala / cello
- Emily Grace Karosas / violin
- Walker Konkle / violin

The Last Dawn starts out rather sedately with the quiet, spacious, rather low-key, “The Land Between the Tides/Glory” (11:35) The song begins its post-rock climb to climactic release in the third minute but then falls slowly and delicately after the seven minute mark—which, I think, marks the end of the “Glory” part of the two-part song. (Is this song—or album—an eulogy to WWII Japan?) (16/20)

2. Katana” (6:21) (10/10) marks one of the most beautiful post-rock melodies/songs I’ve ever heard—a feeling that continues through the next three songs, 3. “Cyclone” (6:24) (10/10) with its awesome bass grounding throughout and amazingly sustained peak at 3:00, and 4. “Elysian Castles” (8:11) with its gorgeous piano-based Japanese folk melody and ever-so delicately woven guitar and cello threads. (20/20)

5. “Where We Begin” (7:25) just sounds a little bit old and tired—like an old U2 song that pulses and rocks but never really goes anywhere. (10.5/15)

6.  “The Last Dawn” (8:37) contains some extraordinarily beautiful, slowly developing three-part threads woven into a rather brilliant and unusual harmonic tapestry. At 2:45 an almost Gospel plea arises momentarily from the tremolo-picked lead guitar but then just as suddenly disappears. The weave deconstructs down to just one single instrument by the four minute mark before being reconstituted with sliding blues-chords, crescendoing cymbols and chime-like two-note arpeggi. Gorgeous yet understated. The power and strength established by the seventh minute sustain themselves through toward the end of the song, the end of the album, but then quietly dissipate as if into the night mist. Really emotional! So powerful and yet not over-the-top or bombastic. Masterful. (19/20)

Again, I am not sure of the “story” Mono are trying to tell with the music on this album: end of the Japanese empire? end of Industrial society? end of human occupancy of planet Earth? Could be all or none of these. Regardless, the band has put together a collection of songs that convert power, grace, beauty, and loss with a kind of emotional impact rarely heard/felt in modern music.

90.0 on the Fish scales = A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of progressive rock music and one of the finest Post Rock albums of the 21st Century. My #17 rated album for 2014.

MONO Rays of Darkness (2014)

Companion release to The Last Dawn, Rays of Darkness is really, at 35 minutes in length, almost an EP—though in 1960-70 time it qualifies as a full album. This album is by all admissions and intentions a much darker, more depressing album than its companion--and the first album in 15 years in which the band foregoes the employment of support from orchestral instruments (other than trumpet).

Line-up / Musicians:
- Takaakira Goto / guitar
- Hideki Suematsu / guitar
- Tamaki Kunishi / bass
- Yasunori Takada / drums
With:
- Jacob Valenzuela / trumpet
- Tetsu Fukagawa / vocals (3)

1. “Recoil, Ignite” (13:19) unfortunately for these ears, contains a very James Bond-like theme in the main melody of its first section (first seven minutes) which, at this pace and in this style, just doesn’t work for me--though I do like the unusual touch of gently strummed acoustic guitar chords paired with the deep rolling bass notes. Tremolo guitar and drums dominate in the fifth and sixth minutes. Around 5:25 the theme gets reconfigured a bit: enough, for the middle section to make the experience somewhat better with strummed bass chords and plodding drums beneath Goto's tremolo. At 7:35 it gets heavy, full band, full release of tension and suspense, full tsunami. The "Bond theme" returns around 8:30. The heavier, more squealing angular eleventh and twelfth minute do more to distract me with thoughts of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” or “She’s So Heavy” and other stuff.

     Revisitng this song a few years later I find that the "Bond theme" doesn't bother me nearly so much--it's a very beautiful melody line that the song is built over. Also, the diversity and inclusion of several "movements" makes the song so much more interesting than past A-B-A-B compositions. (26.5/30)

2. “Surrender” (7:41) suffers from identity issues—it never seems sure of who or what it is and/or where it wants to go. I love the presence of the trumpet/horns holding part of the harmonic weave, but, again, it just never seems to gel or congeal, never shifts into gear. (Maybe that is the point: dis-integration, distress and dis-function.) Disturbing and unsettling. Thanks, Jacob Valenzuela, for the first trumpet in the final two minutes—which stands sadly alone for a spell. (13/15)

3. “The Hand That Holds the Truth” (7:44) has become renowned for the presence of a vocal (Tetsu Fukagawa’s death metal growls). The YouTube video of this is quite entertaining and enlightening as to the group’s individual contributions as bassist/pianist Tamaki Kunishi-Yuasa dons an electric guitar to help produce the three-part weave that forms the second part of this three-part song (intro, weave-building, and climactic main explosion). (13/15)

4. “The Last Rays” (6:39) is an exercise in noise from distortion and atonal string plays. Again, if the theme of this album is the end of the world, then all of the compositions here make perfect sense. What surprises me is the dispassionate, detached feeling of the music—and this from a band that usually seems SO invested in the emotional impact of their songs! Maybe to them the end of the world is so matter-of-fact, such a foregone conclusion, that they have decided to present it like this as an exercise in detachment. I commend them for their efforts but have to admit that I much prefer the impassioned efforts of albums like ULVER’s Shadows of the Sun or Nikitas Kissonas’ Suiciety to represent a sad goodbye to human dominion over the planet. Interesting and powerful if downright scary. (8.75/10)

Total Time 35:00

87.50 on the Fishscales = B/four stars; a good album that is better intellectually—especially when considering the tough subject matter. 

MONO Requiem for Hell (2016)

I love Mono and what they do, but I have to say that this album is quite a disappointment after their previous three albums--which were all great.

Line-up / Musicians:
- Takaakira 'Taka' Goto / guitar
- Hideki Suematsu / guitar
- Tamaki Kunishi / bass
- Yasunori Takada / drums
With:
- Susan Voelz / violin, orchestration
- Inger Petersen Carle / violin
- Andra Kulans / violin
- Vannia Phillips / violin
- Nora Barton / cello
- Veronica Nettles / cello
- Alison Chesley / cello (2)
- Nick Broste / trombone (3)

1. "Death in Rebirth" (8:05) a typical slow building Mono song but what's up with the drummer? He seems to be way off and too militaristic. The song finally gets good at the (prolonged) crescendo and when the drums disappear. (7.5/15)

2. "Stellar" (4:58) starts off with some awesome strings and then piano to play the slow weave of arpeggi. Tuned percussion joins in in the third minute and then the staticky guitar feedback. Very nice, if simple, tune. (8.5/10)

3. "Requiem for Hell" (17:48) opens with two guitars weaving their arpeggi to perfect beauty. Things start getting a little raunchier (in a good way) with some distorted guitar tracks and bells in the third minute. When the drums join in at the five minute mark it's like someone stuck a needle into a balloon--it diminishes the beautiful effect that had been built up to this point. How could the band and producer not hear the horrible effect the drums have on this music? Luckily, there is a reprieve from the drums starting at 9:15. By 10:15 the song is starting afresh with all new arpeggi coming from the guitars. Drum play is added in the twelfth minute, but only to accent the other instruments. Then, when all hell breaks loose (no pun intended) at 12:20, the drummer is mixed farther back in the mix and his play is more in tune with the cacophony occurring all around. This is actually quite an appropriate and effective psychedelic section for the subject matter (not unlike some of the frenzy in more recent MOTORPSYCHO songs). And it plays out for the entirety of the song's final five and a half minutes! Best song on the album. (9/35) 

4. "Ely's Heartbeat" (8:27) one of the weakest Mono songs I've heard in a long time. The drums are so off and the instrumentalists seem to be careless. (6.5/20)

5. "The Last Scene" (6:43) a very pretty, slow and deliberate almost HAROLD BUDD/ROBIN GUTHRIE song. (8.5/10)

Total Time 46:01

80.0 on the Fishscales = four stars; B-; a good album that is worth hearing--especially if you are a Post Rock or Mono fan.

MONO Nowhere, Now Here (2019)

Japanese Post Rock veterans release their 10th album in 20 years and continue to demonstrate their willingness and drive to grow and evolve by offering major synthesized electronic sound washes as ample aqueous solutions in which to launch, buoy, and bathe the vehicles of their instrumental constructs. They have been kind of stumbling along, trying to grow and try new things in recent years but their efforts have not proven successful critically or in sales. Here, now, they have broken several old Mono patterns: with first lineup change ever with new drummer Dahm Majuri Cipolla, rampant and all-pervasive use of electronics (computer keyboards? or MIDI?) and Tamaki's debut vocal.

Line-up / Musicians:

Takaakira 'Taka' Goto - guitar

Tamaki - bass, vocal (3)

Yoda - guitar

Dahm Majuri Cipolla - drums

1. "God Bless" (1:44) "warped record" orchestral strings! It's all warped: "horns," too! Very cool! Like something from a David Sylvian record. (5/5)

2. "After You Comes the Flood" (5:36) dirty, raspy synths and guitars fade into this one for a long (0:56) introduction before the full band burst forth with a solid chord progression within which the familiar MONO tremolo guitar playing moves around. Drumming is very solid, bass is loud and super-chunky, guitars are insistent. A little lull at the end of the third minute allows for a second burst into full frontal brutality--this time with the right channel guitar going rogue and freaky. Awesome stuff! Gets the adrenaline pumping to hear the band firing on all cylinders again. A top three song for me. (9.5/10)

3. "Breathe" (5:24) slow low end synth "horn" chord washes open this one before the breathy "ANNE PIGALLE-like voice of Tamaki enters. Wow! This is different! And awesome! A MONO torch song! It's gorgeous if a little two-dimensional. (9/10)

4. "Nowhere, Now Here" (10:24) opens with gentle, background untreated guitar slow-picked arpeggi before solo electric guitar enters and, then bass and slow drums and "horn" synth chords. After a brief pregnant pause, the full band jumps in with great force and a great weave (with synth strings?) at 3:15. What ensues is beautiful, insistent, emotional, and powerful. At 5:05 the drums and bass start a constant quick-pulse just before a break in which the two guitars continue playing off of each other in their own repetitive styles. Bass and snare rolls reenter in the second half of the seventh minute and then kick drum. At 7:50 everything gets loosed but this is weak until the tremolos really speed up and the cymbal crashes get going. I don't like the drums' backing off as the guitars continue screaming. (17/20)

5. "Far and Further" (5:41) guitar arpeggi with heavy reverb is counterpointed by gently picking guitar and then by super chorused and two channeled guitar strums and thick bass notes. Nice weave that stays mellow until the three minute mark when bass drum and bowed instrument check in. At 3:40 the raunchy electric guitar tremolos show up as cymbals and orchestral sounds join. Never reaches fast speed or frenetic playing, but effectively conveys a mood. (8.75/10)

6. "Sorrow" (8:30) the two guitars, with their two styles, playing gently, each with more lush electronic effects that usual, before steady blues-rock drums join in until the two minute mark when a pulse of bass and wall of shifting orchestral strings chords joins in for fifty seconds pure beauty. Then things get quiet and more sparse again for thirty seconds before swaths of "singular" strings begin swooping in and around the music to the most gorgeous, emotional effect. At 4:45 the beat intensifies as the drums and bass begin pounding and crashing while the musical soundscape becomes awash in the thickness of a constant kind of tremolo. Beginning at the end of the eighth minute Taka's full-chord tremolos with keyboard mirror bombard and bathe us until the song's Berlin School sequenced demise in the final 30 seconds. Definitely a top three song; probably my favorite song on the album. (19/20)

7. "Parting" (4:25) piano and strings! It's so MONO but it's unlike anything they've ever done before. Could be Jesy Chiang and her CICADA band. Very pretty, very emotional. (8.75/10)

8. "Meet Us Where the Night Ends" (9:05) opens with odd sequence (arpeggio) of computer-sampled vocal loops before guitar arpeggio joins in. Very cool! At the one minute mark a second guitar enters playing some echoed and spaciously placed notes. In the third minute the second guitarist doubles his slow pace as bass and cymbals (and then full drums) and "orchestration" join in. Not very complex music but all threads are woven into a nice tapestry. Around 3:20 things break down to the original voice and guitar foundation before low-end guitar tremolo and orchestral strings' rising and falling chord progression ensues. Drums re-emerge at the five minute mark. Searing electric guitar flames in at 5:36 to add his emotional input. At 6:45 drummer signals "it's time to get real" as everybody seems to amp up their intensity (especially the drums--which erupt into full freak out mode at 7:17). Awesome! And different! (18/20)

9. "Funeral Song" (3:21) flutey church organ swirling around a cycle of a few chords before a sequence of "trumpet plus horn chords" join in. And woven together with some reverb and other effects and that's it! Awesome! (9/10)

10. "Vanishing, Vanishing Maybe" (6:14) Yoda's heavily reverbed guitar arpeggi (on the left) are soon joined by Taka's own louder sound on the right. Add Wurlitzer-like organ in the second minute. The melodies and harmonic structure here is so cool, so familiar. Drum kit enters at 2:10. Sounds like practice, nothing too challenging or groundbreaking in terms of structure until the third ROBIN GUTHRIE-like shoe-gaze guitar comes sliding in at 3:28. Now that is cool! Just a solid COCTEAU TWINS instrumental. (8.75/10)

Total Time 60:24

90.60 on the Fishscales = A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of progressive rock music--one of the few Post Rock albums that have ever earned five stars from me, but this is a dazzling display of the core basic best that the sub-genre has to offer juxtaposed with a band's maturity plus the rewards it can reap with it's willingness to take risks and try new things. My #16 ranked album of 2019. Bravo! Taka, Tamaki and Yoda for your metamorphosis.

MONO Pilgrimage of the Soul (2021)

Expanding, growing, still willing to experiment, this is a 22-year old band that is setting the example for all other bands. Here they have nicely added/embellished their sound with orchestral instruments and arrangements.

Line-up / Musicians:
- Takaakira 'Taka' Goto / guitar
- Tamaki / bass, piano
- Yoda / guitar
- Dahm / drums
With:
- Susan Voelz / violin & orchestrator
- Andra Kulans / violin
- Vannia Phillips / violin
- Emi Tanabe / violin
- Alison Chesley / cello
- Anna Steinhoff / cello
- Nora Barton / cello
- Kelsee Vandervall / cello
- Chad McCullough / trumpet & brass co-arrangement
- Liz Deitemyer / French horn
- Matthew Davis / trombone

1. "Riptide" (5:51) powerful in the best way that MONO can be. Opens with horns in the background as delicately picked electric guitar--until 1:20 when a volume 10 tsunami of sound crashes in (scaring the bejeezus outof me everytime I hear it!) The intensity is almost militaristic--but maybe stronger--like a volcanic eruption! And just as relentless! By song's end I feel beaten to a pulp! Awesome! Could be a top three song--if only for it's long-lasting effect on my nervous system. (9/10)

2. "Imperfect Things" (6:25) delicate loop of a harp-like arpeggio opens this before being joined by slow, distinct guitar and bass notes. Such a contrast to the previous song's barrage (from which I am still reeling--my nervous system still recovering from). Second slow-picked guitar and second windy-synth loop join in during the third minute. The loops build in the fourth minute until deep bass chords and disco drum play join in. Guitars return now playing full chords where they had only submitted single notes before, but the timing/pace is the same. The drummer's snare play takes us out of Disco-realm. At the five-minute mark guitars and strings enter, taking the music in a different direction--while the rhythm section remains constant. All pressure is relieved at the six-minute mark for a finish of just the loops. Nice. (8.75/10)

3. "Heaven in a Wild Flower" (7:10) sustained organ note (dyad?) with electric piano playing slowly over the top. At 1:20 far background bowed electric guitar and second hand of electric piano and bass join in. It's slow and old feeling. At 2:28 horns join in from the distant background. At 3:03 distant background electronic percussive noises, and then, at 3:40, cellos, while full brass section moves to the fore. Full strings join in the next round as horns become a little more expanded and expressive. At 5:50 things begin to break down, leaving single cello to solo over the basic foundation of electric piano chords, samples & loops. Surprised to have such little representation of the band's electric guitar-oriented sound--and no drums! (13/15)

4. "To See a World" (4:00) two arpeggiating guitars with full strings support are joined in the second minute by cymbals, snare drum and, at 1:45, finally, by the full band--bursting forth in a full rock/Post Rock wall of sound. The stark and untreated snare drum hits feel a bit incongruous with the deluge of murky treatments given all the other instruments (except, perhaps, the bass guitar). Nice, old-fashioned, orchestra-supported Mono Post Rock. (8.5/10)

5. "Innocence" (8:10) female choir chord and percussive guitar notes open this before being joined by an overture-like quick series of band + orchestra chord progressions--a pattern that is repeated over and over until 2:30 when tremolo-electric guitar seems to be trying to take us in another direction. But, no! The pattern is too strong; the rondo of power chords sustains and maintains its dominance--until 4:26 when a single drum hit signals the unleashing of a full-on Mono barrage of sound. It's wonderful! Great chord progression under the command of these masters of contrast and melody. Then, at 6:05, things fall into spacey stillness before guitar and organ notes and reverse percussives start to creep forward and populate the cosmic field. Interesting--and unusual. (13.25/15)

6. "The Auguries" (7:30) Taking on a rather cinematic musical style, the band create a kind of James Bond-like feel--even as they take it the music into new heights at the end of the second minute. The typical Mono construct of rondo cyclical approach ensues as each band member takes turns adding to or embellishing their sound and or contribution. Yoda"s searing MY BLOODY VALENTINE-like guitar play in the fifth minute is heart-wrenching, to say the least. Super powerful--and quite haunting. A top three song for me. (13.75/15)

7. "Hold Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand" (12:21) sustained oscillating Hammond organ chords to which are added bee-like horn notes (sampled?) and then xylophone arpeggi. At 3:00 gentle guitar and bass notes are entered. These are soon joined by drums. Beautiful! A heart-wrenching melody. Tremolo guitar joins the mix at the very end of the fifth minute followed buy a ramping up of the strings in background support. Around the six-minute mark we return to the bare-bones weave of the opening section--like starting over--before drums, guitars, bass, and strings rejoin--this time with more intensity and complexity. All the while, the gorgeous base melody line is held strong. At the eight-minute mark the rock elements all intensify, taking the walls of sound up a few notches, while maintaining the core. In the second half of the tenth minute, the march-time of the drum seems to spoil a bit of the integrity of the melodic and emotional impact. To bad! This had all the makings of one of Mono's finest! Despite this little hump, the final 70 seconds of entropic cacophony is awesome. My other top three song. (22.75/25)

8. "And Eternity in an Hour" (5:51) slow, hypnotic (lullaby-like) piano arpeggi--at first by one and then by two hands--are soon joined by full spectrum of orchestral strings. Beautiful minimalist chamber music! Start to finish! Wow! Who'd have thought this possible from a heavily electrified Post Rock band? A top three song. (9.5/10)

Total Time 57:18

89.54 on the Fishscales = B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of progressive rock music and the finest Post Rock album of 2021! What a musical treat! My #13 favorite album of 2021 (#20 on the Fishscales). Highly recommended!