Mono
Walking Cloud And Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered And The Sun Shined
Release Date: Oct 5, 2004
Genre(s): Indie, Rock, Experimental
Record label: Temporary Residence
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Album Review: Walking Cloud And Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered And The Sun Shined by Mono
Excellent, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Tokyo's Mono have matured in a most compelling way. They began shamelessly wearing their influences on their collective sleeve, pushing a heavy brand of distorted guitar scree into the stratosphere of sheer punishing noise. On Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined, the band's third full-length on the brilliant Temporary Residence Limited label, they've transformed themselves into something utterly new.
Opinion: Fairly Good
With their first two albums, Mono, four wiry twentysomethings from Japan, established themselves as masters of a long-form instrumental rock familiar to most - not just post-rock connoisseurs, but frankly anyone who's ever heard a Mogwai or Sonic Youth record. But even if there isn't much novelty in their formula of rising and falling tension, they've always stood apart from the crowd thanks to two things: volume and conviction. Whereas many like-minded groups tend to pile on layers of sound by rote, Mono play with startling expression and feeling - and they also play really, really loud.