Mono - The Last Dawn & Rays of Darkness

I've been a fan of Mono for a while now; like a lot of bands, I was introduced to them by the late and mostly-great All Tomorrow's Parties. I remember seeing them shredding away at their guitars at the Explosions in the Sky ATP and being impressed. I checked out a couple of their albums and have seen them live a bunch of times since. There's something more classically-influenced about their style of post-rock than a lot of instrumental post-rock bands. Or perhaps I've just been trained to think that way because the first album of theirs that I got was the live album they did with an orchestra.

At some point in 2014 the pre-order for their new double album The Last Dawn / Rays of Darkness came up and the package looked too incredible to miss. I had a couple of Mono albums on vinyl, which was easily going to turn into a collection so I figured I'd help it along the way. The main draw was that the pre-order was for both albums together, whereas they were otherwise to be sold separately (and I've only seen them separately since). Temporary Residence Records has released some great stuff over the years but I've always held off ordering from them because the shipping was brutally expensive. I ordered this one and the United Nations album at the same time, although I don't think it saved a great deal in shipping; both were still pretty pricey overall.

As you can see in the pictures, this is the US pressing where The Last Dawn is on clear vinyl with white smoke streaks and Rays of Darkness is on clear vinyl with black smoke streaks. Both look excellent and suit the themes of the albums brilliantly. The sleeve is also die-cut so you can see the picture sleeves inside. Each one is numbered (albeit on the sticker on the cellophane) and mine is 644/1000. The sleeve took a slight dent in the post, but looks mostly fine. The gatefold opens length-ways to show the full artwork, which looks great.

I've been listening to these two albums a lot since I got them - I go through phases of preferring one to the other though. The Last Dawn is lovely and ticks a lot of the same boxes as the live album. It's thematically the lighter of the two and when it does get going, it does so in a much calmer way - The Land Between Tides / Glory, Cyclone and Where We Begin all get pretty intense but in a fairly soothing way. It's pretty much impossible to talk about The Last Dawn without comparing it to Explosions in the Sky and Mono have never sounded so much like them as they do here. That's not a criticism mind you, I very much enjoy this version of Mono.

Whilst The Last Dawn tends to be my favourite when I'm in a very specific mood, Rays of Darkness is the one I cam go to more often and really enjoy. It's a much more instant and easily rewarding affair - perhaps in it's role as the darker, heavier album it ticks more of my boxes. At four songs, it's a bit of a stretch to call it an album, but that also works in it's favour; it's brevity makes it easier to get into. Recoil, Ignite is a huge song and sits somewhere between where Mono usually sit and early Mogwai - there are two points in that song where it just explodes in the way post-rock is supposed and its glorious. It's nearly double the length of the other songs but never feels like it. Surrender has a little less going for it but The Hand That Holds the Truth makes up for it very quickly - it's a great song and then catches me off-guard (every time) with vocals from the old singer from Envy. God knows what he's singing but it works perfectly. I'm a fan of Envy anyway, so to have the singer appear here is even better. The song keeps building while he growls over it and it's a very exciting thing to listen to.

Mono have not long announced their next album, which I've also pre-ordered. I'm looking forward to it greatly.

Format: Double 12", die-cut gatefold sleeve, picture sleeves, numbered (#644/1000)
Tracks: 10
Cost: £29 new
Bought: Temporary Residence Records
When: 29/10/14
Colour: Clear with white smoke and Clear with black smoke
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Mono - Holy Ground: NYC Live With The Wordless Music Orchestra

Since I've been doing this PhD, instrumental music has really come into it's own. It used to be that the only post-rock bands in my collection were Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai, but since I discovered how nice it is to work whilst listening to epic, soaring music I've found so many more bands I love. Mono are certainly one of them, and this record is great.

I'm pretty sure that  they were the first band I ever saw at All Tomorrow's Parties, playing the EITS festival a few years back. They were certainly the first band I saw in the upstairs room at Minehead. I was very impressed, but somehow forgot to actually buy any of their records until a few years later. When this album was released there was a free download of Ashes in the Snow floating around that I downloaded and played to death. I've always been a sucker for classical instruments and rock music together (this might have something to do with Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve being a huge part of my life).

When I was in San Francisco a few months later I found the triple vinyl in Amoeba Records. I'd been wanting to buy it since the record came out but it was crazy expensive with postage from the states, so I jumped at the chance to get it then. It worked out to about £19, which is still a lot, but it's a pretty lovely package: limited to 3,000 copies, triple gatefold vinyl with individual picture sleeves and a DVD of the entire show. Musically, it's lovely. The orchestra adds so much warmth to the songs, and so much power to the whole thing. The DVD is a great watch too, seeing this rock band sat in front of a huge orchestra (also means I get to enjoy it without getting up to change the record five times). The whole thing is worth a listen, but Ashes in the Snow and Pure as Snow are certainly highlights and the outro to Everlasting Light is jaw-dropping.

I had tickets to see Mono playing with an orchestra in Koko last year, but I couldn't go in the end. Some friends and I were planning a fairly large trip around south-east Asia and the only time we could all make it involved me giving up my tickets to see Mono and Low. I was a bit gutted (especially since chances to see a performance as awesome as this record don't come around that often) but I'm very glad I went. I got to finally see Low at the Jeff Mangum ATP earlier in the year, and Mono are playing Shellac's one in December, admittedly not with an orchestra, but it should be good regardless.


Format: Triple 12", gatefold, picture sleeves, DVD
Tracks: 10
Cost: £19 new
Bought: Amoeba, San Francisco
When: 07/09/10
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no