This evening is a special night for lovers of post-rock in Leeds as one of the most respected and revered bands in the genre, Tokyo’s Mono, are at the legendary Brudenell Social Club for a rare performance. Anticipation for this show is high, and we’re feeling a great deal of excitement as we take our places for the aural avalanche we are about to experience.
Cahill // Costello opens the proceedings with an immersive take on live atmospheric drum and bass, or should that read drum and guitar, as the bass is absent. It’s a beautiful sound they make that owes as much to Squarepusher as it does to Mogwai. The drumming is incredible, with a tight piccolo snare giving it that all-important DnB sound. It’s always impressive to see a live drummer pull off this sound. It’s even more impressive to see all of the microfills pulled off in real time. The guitar playing falls into the atmospheric field, as displayed on their Cahill//Costello II album, so the fireworks are in the percussion here. How much you like Cahill // Costello will depend on how much you enjoy early Warp records, Uziq, and Aphex Twin being pulled off on live instruments. We like this kind of thing, but some of the crowd look slightly restless.
Mono are a rare beast; we missed our chance to catch them at Portals festival a couple of years ago and have rued the day ever since. So, upon hearing that the Japanese post-rock legends were coming to Leeds, we jumped on it and here we are in a packed Brudenell in deep reverence. Taking to the stage to Oath album highlight Run On, it’s clear that using this track straight away points to a confidence in the monolithic set that follows. Usually, we take notes during a show to use later, but in the presence of this four-piece from Tokyo, you have to immerse yourself fully in the music with zero distractions. They are kings of the subtle build; new elements are gently introduced and then become main motifs, as you notice. Mono are way classier than your usual “crescendo core,” post-rock acts.
For a start, there are usually many peaks and valleys throughout their arrangements, sometimes pulling back so far as to stun an audience into pun drop silence, only to rebound back in a hail of fuzz. Hear The Wind Sing, also from their most recent album, is a pure joy to behold, bursting with optimism before bursting into exuberant, fuzzed-out bliss. It segues beautifully into the twinkling melancholy of Ashes In The Snow from Mono’s 2009 LP Hymn To The Immortal Wind, a genre-defining and defying masterwork that owes as much to classical music as it does to shoegaze. In a live setting, though, is how these songs should be heard; the sound balance is perfect tonight, and every note rings out with pure clarity. It’s the 13-minute ending of 2013’s Recoil/Ignite that absolutely slays us, though: a massive wave of sound crashing around you at its first peak that seems to dissolve before an even bigger wave of pure abandon leaves you dazed and wondering what just happened. Did we also mention that throughout this, they look like the most effortlessly cool band since Sonic Youth?
All of this is why a Mono gig is an opportunity to jump on right away, and why, even without notes, this is an easy review for us to write, as it’s indelibly etched in our psyche forever.
Review By George Miller – https://www.facebook.com/oneflamemedia
Photos By: Thomas Hazlehurst – https://www.instagram.com/tommytogtog/
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Cahill // Costello
Mono
