UTR Presents
MONO (JPN) AUSTRALIA / NEW ZEALAND TOUR
DECEMBER 2015
LIFE IS NOISE is pleased to announce the 2015 Australia and New Zealand tour of iconic Japanese post-rock powerhouse MONO.
One of the most consistently perfect bands in post-rock. - Kerrang!
It starts sweetly. A glockenspiel loop sounds out beneath finger-picked guitar melodies. Then without warning, a torrent sweeps in – guitars that are at once immense and brittle. Within less than a minute it gives way to a wall of distortion, recedes only to swoop in once more, the intensity of the guitars bobbing like waves in a storm.
So goes Ashes in the Snow, the opening track from MONOs fifth studio record, Hymn to the Immortal Wind and one of the highlights of their dense discography. It embodies everything MONO have come to represent in their fifteen year career – music that simultaneously conjures hope and apocalyptic dread, that evokes crushing loneliness and uplifting exaltation in the same note.
Screw ‘Music For The People’, this is music for the gods. – NME
On their latest albums – 2014’s The Last Dawn and Rays of Darkness – MONO’s sound is fully realized. Their ambitious marriage of cinematic largesse, doomish dread, sprawling post-rock and orchestral majesty is distilled into 84 minutes of emotionally demanding and immensely rewarding musical transcendence, cementing themselves alongside the likes of Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky at the forefront of the post-rock canon.
Theres no question that MONO is doing exactly what they want to do at this point in their career. – Pitchfork
Despite their penchant for beautiful and brittle melodies, MONO’s live shows are frankly exhausting. This is not easy listening: in the flesh, MONO are the kind of band that catch an audience off guard with their brutal emotional intensity, leaving you hypnotised, crushed and utterly drained by the end of their set.
Wordless music is rarely as drenched with majestic beauty and formidable power as what MONO unleash. – Consequence of Sound
MONO are wordless because there are no earthly languages fit for their ineffable, otherworldly post-rock. This is a band best experienced live, loud and up front.
Undertheradar and Life is Noise present...
Mono
Auckland - Kings Arms - December 10
Tickets available from UTR, Real Groovy and Flying Out
