Mono / World's End Girlfriend
Palmless Prayer/Mass Murder Refrain
[Temporary Residence : 2006]

All I know, it's NOT rock 'n' roll, but I like it...!

Japanese post-rock monolith Mono have never really been rock 'n' roll in the traditional sense and their music is more akin to classical in arrangements, melodic sense, and texture, but here on their collaboration with "fellow Tokyo native and modern electronic music composer" World's End Girlfriend they've taken that factor and brought it to its logical extreme. Don't expect the skull-shattering crescendoes of their past work, don't even expect the sturm-und-drang dynamics that are the hallmark of the post rock canon, heck, don't even expect drums on most tracks. The five long pieces on Palmless Prayer/Mass Murder Refrain float, drift, waft, burble, trickle, simmer, breathe, swell, sparkle, shift, fade. This is classical music in that Mono's electric guitars, for the most part low in the mix, gently picked and rarely strummed, are augmented by - no - subservient to cello, violin, viola, piano and choir. But it defies all lazy categorization by its refusal to adhere to the tenets of either classical music or post rock with their inherent need to go bang! at some point and suscribe to "arrangements." Tension is created by fastidious restraint, and fans of the band and others of their creed, especially Godspeed You! Black Emperor, will be surprised by the complete lack of a money shot here. But appreciators of modern composition, musical genre be damned, will be blown away.