Mono

You Are There

(Temporary Residence)

Record Review by Alexis Roberts

The Japanese quartet Mono has just unleashed their latest CD upon the world through Temporary Residence Records.  After six years together, they continue to put a new angle on the ever-growing genre of instrumental rock with each new record they release.

Instrumental rock is not always easily appreciated.  If done improperly, songs are boring and tedious; even some of the leading bands in the genre have those 38-minute songs where you’ll find yourself fast forwarding to the good parts, skipping over the six minutes of unnecessary static.  If done properly, though, the lack of a singer can allow for more power than anything that any lyric could do, and that’s how you know that an instrumental piece is truly transcendent.  This is when the music moves you without words, and you find yourself with the chills but can’t figure out why because it’s 105 degrees outside.  This is what Mono does.

Sure, there are still the lengthy songs in which a single note pulsates for a stretch of time, but, for some reason, it doesn’t matter.  When the note ends—as abruptly as it began—you feel like you might even miss its presence.  The musical technique that Mono displays on You Are There is absolutely phenomenal.  It’s not so much incredibly complicated as it’s incredibly well arranged.  The signature changes and the transitions between movements are the things that all musicians wish they could do, especially with Mono’s charisma.  If grace had a defined sound, this is what it would be.

You Are There is only six tracks long, but clocks in at about an hour in length.  That’s just long enough to get you through your morning commute, or to fall asleep at night.  In the future, I deeply hope that Mono will continue releasing music and giving these chills to people all over the world.