If the March release of a new Mogwai record makes you feel as though life is just a little bit too happy-go-lucky, and you feel like there is just not enough depressing sense of imminent doom in your life, bop on out to the record store again to pick up the new instrumental masterpiece from Japan’s Mono.
Refined to the point of arranging your emotions as easily as they arrange their music and recorded by Albini in Chicago, You Are There combines the delicate chamber music of Louisville’s Rachels and the swelling climactic energy of Godspeed You Black Emperor. This just might be the most wonderfully powerful instrumental record of the year. If you get a chance to see them on tour with Pelican this year, jump at it.
– Chris Smith
Mono (Temporary Residence Limited)