Recently, I’ve really been getting into something called ‘Post Rock’ Um, what’s “Post Rock”? Wikipedia says:
Post-rock is a genre of alternative rock characterized by the use of musical instruments commonly associated with rock music, but using rhythms, harmonies, melodies, timbre, and chord progressions that are not usually found in rock tradition. It is the use of ‘rock instrumentation’ for non-rock purposes. Practitioners of the genre’s style typically produce instrumental music.
I’m not going to kid you, I don’t really understand that description. To be totally honest I don’t really know exactly what constitutes post rock and what doesn’t. In my experience, it’s rock music with an emphasis on instruments other than guitars and drums, with very little or no vocals. Maybe that’s accurate. Maybe it’s totally wrong and post rock scholars everywhere just spat tea all over their leather-bound computers.
Regardless, the artists I’ve found through searching the term are responsible for some totally awesome music. Really moving stuff. So I thought today I’d introduce an album that moved me, and still moves me every time I hear it.
This wasn’t the first post rock album I listened to, and it wasn’t the first one I enjoyed. But it is my favourite. Hymn to the Immortal Wind is the fifth album by MONO, an instrumental band who’ve been going since 1999. It’s a little over an hour long and only consists of seven tracks, yet it doesn’t plod along but constantly moves along through clever movements and passages.
What really makes the album is the harmony between the guitar line and the orchestra parts. Recorded with a 28 piece orchestra, the strings in particular take the music and push it from ‘amazing’ to ‘it feels like I’m soaring through the sky‘. It’s hard to get across what I mean by that, but I suppose ‘uplifting’ is a reasonable if boring term, and this stuff is anything but boring. The opener “Ashes in the Snow” goes from a calm, almost timid set of strings emerging from radio static into an all out battle of guitars and drums versus swooping orchestra. It sounds like it should be a noisy mess but it’s actually a single harmony, carved out of a wall of pure energy.
It’s truly incredible music. But there are tracks that don’t follow MONO’s wonderful formula. “Silent Flight, Sleeping Dawn” and especially “Follow The Map” are two incredibly calm tracks, beautiful pieces of moving music that serve both to entertain but also to act as interludes between epic pieces like ‘The Battle To Heaven’.
Something I was always advised as a child was “save the best for last” and it looks like MONO heard that one, too. The final track Everlasting Light is my favourite song on the album and probably the best song I’ve heard all year. It starts off as a set of strings and piano. It’s so simple. To be honest if the song ended at the 2:30 mark it would have been a wonderful piece of classical music, but it keeps going. The piano keeps winding it’s way over an ever growing chorus of strings. Then, all of a sudden, things start getting serious. The strings take a more scary, “something’s coming out of the woods!” turn…
…and then the guitar arrives, and all that calmness from the introduction is swept up and pushed along by this new roaring energy. Still the piano slides it’s way overhead, and together these wildly different musical elements build towards the crescendo. I know calling it ‘The Crescendo’ is a bit serious, but it deserves that title. Trust me.
I’m not going to tell you when it comes, as that would spoil it, but a solitary cymbal gives way to what I can only describe as a tidal wave of sound. One that keeps rolling and growing, as more and more is added to it, driving towards the final sixty seconds of the song I can only describe as musical perfection. The best moments in music I’ve heard in a hell of a long time. There’s no way a listener can’t be blown away. Imagine sitting in your living room expecting a rock song with a piano, but instead an 18 wheeler truck piles out of your stereo. Yeah, try ignoring that.
OK, so I admit I might have got a *tiny* bit carried away with this review. But these guys deserve all the hype. As I mentioned it’s hard to define them but ‘music you can’t ignore’ is probably pretty close. If you do ignore this review and never hear the band, you’re missing out. It’s like staying in bed when everyone else has ice-cream. This album is musical ice-cream.
The album is available in most regions on Spotify here, and if not you can always visit the MONO website. They’re touring the world at the moment. Don’t miss out!
