I know it’s a bit pre-emptive nominating a contender for Album Of 2009 when we’re only three months into the year but in recent days I’ve become so entranced by Mono’s latest effort Hymn to the Immortal Wind I’m pretty confident that we may already have a winner. It’s their fifth studio effort but apart from the EP compilation Gone this is the first time I’ve had chance to properly check them out…and I absolutely love what I’ve found.
The band’s sound is in the vein of Mogwai or God is an Astronaut in that the songs are almost all instrumentals with keyboards and occasional samples woven in between layered guitar lines. Although there are several bands, including the two mentioned above, who fall into the category of atmospheric post-rock or shoegaze this is one of the finest examples I’ve had the pleasure to hear so far: a tender yet emotionally-charged gem of an album that balances experimental guitar noise with staggering orchestral beauty. If it isn’t the best thing we’ll hear in the next twelve months I’ll enjoy being proved wrong.
The relatively short track listing should indicate that this is not a collection of three minute radio-friendly numbers: the promotional info on the official site claims that it was performed “…with a romantic, hopeful narrative in mind,” a sentiment I can easily empathise with. The band have what I understand to be a long-standing relationship with Steve Albini as studio recording engineer, whose approach means that the arrangements maintain a ‘live’ feel which in this case compliments the use of a twenty-eight piece orchestra as backing for the band’s guitar-driven compositions.
Ashes in the Snow opens the record with dueted guitar riffs that are joined by a rising wash of cymbals before the full strings section joins in; in typical post-rock style there’s excellent use of dynamic changes between grandiose walls of distortion and more restrained moments with the end result of feeling as though the nearly-twelve minute(!) piece is telling a story, or charting a journey, with music. While the use of high volume and distortion or a relentless tremolo picking technique might otherwise be challenging or even atonal listening, the blend of electric and acoustic ensures that every minute has a sense of subtlety and harmony.
Burial at Sea also starts with a quiet, clean guitar line and takes things into less dramatic but, as the title suggests, somewhat darker territory. The orchestral aspect works wonderfully here to colour the plaintive guitars and booming drums, picking up in tempo during its second half with a crescendo that exploits the sonic characteristics of both to the full. Things take a more gentle and restful turn with Silent Flight, Sleeping Dawn in which piano, flutes and harpsichord carry the track through most of its six minute duration.
I love the way that in Pure as Snow (Trails of the Winter Storm) the two sparkling, melancholic guitar parts create a sensation of instrospection, followed by a gradual build-up into something more powerful and epic, as if it’s the soundtrack to a film that doesn’t yet exist; the plaintive shrieks of distortion and feedback keep a low yet still noticable profile to give a feeling of intensity tempered with sweetness and order in chaos. Needless to say the choices of song titles are evocative but also very descriptive!
At less than four minutes in duration Follow the Map is the shortest on offer here but it’s one of the highlights of the album for me. The piano is accompanied by a reverb-drenched guitar reminiscent of Dave Gilmour, the strings echoing the piano to paint a soundscape of heartfelt emotion: hope, longing, loneliness and reunion. Incidentally the abstract promotional video to accompany the song reflects its intentions.
The Battle to Heaven is closer to what I recognise as Mono’s signature sound; the orchestra sitting a little lower in the mix and the fuzz-laden guitar chords featuring more prominently. The great thing is, even when the music itself – as opposed to lyrical content – is relied upon to maintain the listener’s interest, it never once feels boring or repetitive. I’ve actually had this album playing at least once on my hi-fi for a week and it still hasn’t got even close to wearing on me. Gone required several listens to warm to it but Hymn to the Immortal Wind sounded fantastic from the get-go and still does, however often I play it.
The very title of Everlasting Light gives an impression of hope and optimism, as hinted at by the bittersweet tinkling piano that makes up the introduction; the atmosphere is buoyed up by the trem-picked guitars and a faint presence of strings in the background. The band and orchestra join together in a joyous, eardrum-shredding yet somehow heart-wrenching crescendo to give one of the most uplifting but simultaneously tear-jerking finales to any recorded musical performance I’ve ever heard; the guitars offer a contemporary edginess while the orchestra’s contrasting association with classical gives an end result that sounds new, yet is somehow timeless.
Are the titles, and the feelings they evoke, part of an overall concept or idea? I’m honestly not sure. I do have a fascination with the inlay booklet of every album I buy though, which means I pay a lot of attention to the artwork and content of the sleevenotes. In the case of Hymn to the Immortal Wind each track has a fascinating short story or a few paragraphs of descriptive text, courtesy of a Heeya So, whoever she may be. The content fits the sentiment of the music itself, should you take the time to read it (I recommend you do).
On reflection, and repeated listens, I still feel the need to say that this is indeed the best new album you are likely to hear this year: it makes me feel as though I’ve had my heart broken and mended again. Superlative stuff.
Track listing
- Ashes in the Snow
- Burial at Sea
- Silent Flight, Sleeping Dawn
- Pure as Snow (Trails of the Winter Storm)
- Follow the Map
- The Battle to Heaven
- Everlasting Light
I have zero credentials by which to judge “quality post-rock” let alone “quality music” or even “quality” (in fact, I think this album is more or less the first “post-rock” album I’ve heard, and due to it I can’t see why they bother to call it “post-rock” and not “classical music with eclectically played rock instrumentation” but this is why I’m not a marketer) but I certainly enjoyed the album. I got it off HearJapan a couple weeks ago (to support them and to try the album out) and I’ve listened to it a couple of times. It’s too much of a sonic experience for me, and I tend not to stick that sort of music on as general background music, out of respect, even if I fail at listening to it in the proper fashion.
I also discovered that I love listening to Follow the Map while walking. For obvious reasons. It’s a very walky song. And I walk a lot.
OGT’s got it good. I had an Explosions in the Sky album as my first post-rock proper (The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place), and while it was good (although I personally prefer The Rescue), it took many listens to warm to, EitS being so damned ambient and whatnot.
As far as Hymn to the Immortal Wind is concerned, though, it’s a winner–its instant accessibility is a plus, and I’m not just talking about Ashes in the Snow, either! I’ve always loved that tabula rasa part of post-rock where you ascribe the emotions on the song and not vice-versa, and what I particularly love about the album is how it can seem jubilantly triumphant one day, and heart-rending the next. It’s a mark of all good post-rock, and HttIW succeeds in that regard. Glad to hear you’re as into it as I am.
You win just for even talking about Mono. Now that’s a band that deserves more exposure (although that’s nothing new for any band in the post-rock genre). But I didn’t even realize they had a new album out, which just goes to show how out of touch I am.
@OGT: I’m reluctant to categorise bands when their unsuitability for easy categorisation is one of the things I like about them (Mogwai, interestingly, try to distance themselves from the post-rock category!), but Mono are one of the best examples of what can be done with guitar, bass and drums without resorting to the traditional song structures. “classical music with eclectically played rock instrumentation” is probably the neatest way of summing up this record…is it guitar music with an orchestra or orchestral music with guitars?
@Owen S: I’ve heard good things about EitS so will check them out soonish (and will probably curse myself for leaving it so long, as was the case with Mogwai). I love the ‘narrative’ feel of this record – it comes across to me as an occasionally tragic romance story with an epic happy ending.
@Sorrow-kun: thanks ^_^ They really are a band who need more publicity in these parts, but I’m glad to be of help in alerting you to their new ‘un. You have to hear it ASAP if you’re a fan of theirs, honestly.
Give toe a try :D
Strangely enough, I didn’t find the new album as accessible as you guys, but this might be because I came to Mono from a harder noise rock background. It must also be considered that back in the day the widescale adoption of strings by rock groups was usually a sign of desperation and running out of ideas, although in Mono’s case it is a fairly logical progression.
Did you see them live, Martin? They were in London just a few nights back, and they did a few of their regular UK provincial haunts in the week before that. They were very good, as ever, although the general consensus is that the new material took some time to get going. The set list was most of the Hymn album + Halcyon and Yearning (about time Halcyon was dropped for something else really).
@madeener: I’ve just looked Toe up on Last.FM (man, I love that site) and they sound like they might be up my street. Cheers for the recommendation! Interesting to see Spangle Call Lilli Line and Acidman on the ‘similar artists’ list since I’ve got into those recently too.
@lastarial: when I think of orchestra + rock band I immediately think of Metallica’s S&M live album, which had its moments of brilliance but was recorded during something of a low point in their career. In HttIW’s case though the two contrasting elements work perfectly. I actually come from a alt-rock background (three chords, blues solos and plenty of angst!) but I appreciate a bit of classical too…two disparate tastes that unusually collide here! Sadly I missed them live in the UK this time around but if they are touring back in Japan when I’m over there in May I’d love to catch them then…
@Martin: The A – B – A’ – B – C – A[''] structure and its variants are pretty fixed these days as far as songwriting goes. Not that there’s an inherent problem with a rondo-style song structure, or that non-rondo-style song structures are inherently better, but variance is the spice of life.
Honestly, when it comes to “look what you can do with a guitar that’s not like what everyone ELSE does with a guitar!” I prefer Sound Horizon over Mono on the simple principle that they took “rock opera” to an entirely new level, one that’s far more opera than rock. I honestly think they’re the hardest band I know of to tidily categorize into a single genre: their Wikipedia entry page cracks me up because there’s a list of at least 15 different genres for their music, none of which are wrong. I do this mostly because I’m a Revo fanboy and like doujin music way more than I should, but when I can go from Gothic-ish-visual-kei-ish metal to Russian polkas to a cross-genre opera with occasional electric guitar and bass, well…
@OGT: wow, I just had a quick skim through Sound Horizon’s Wiki page and yeah…that’s a pretty impressive project (I noticed one or two familiar names too, surprisingly for me). Will have a look over on Jpopsuki or Last.fm for some of their stuff. Thanks for the rec!
@Martin: Sound Horizon is like a giant pan-doujin-music-world group; the only thing they seem to lack as of right now is getting Akiko Shikata and maybe Chata on board.
Personally I say you should try Moira first, the more recent the Sound Horizon album the better it tends to be. I like all their commercially-released albums, though, that I’ve heard (Elysion~楽園幻想物語組曲~, Roman, and Moira, as well as the singles and such), but I always found that I needed an adjustment period for each album musically (they can be HUGELY disparate and different). Any of those three should be a good starting point (unless you want to start way back at the beginning with Chronicle before Revo could even afford a vocalist), and Aramary, the Elysion vocalist, left after that album and Revo simply got more vocalists to replace her, and that broadened the sound even more.
Pingback: Hourai Neetwork - NEET Sign 「Imperishable Blogging」 » Life in Mono