We’re no strangers to MONO here at The Midlands Rocks having spoken to the band at 2022’s ArcTanGent festival (here). For a quarter-of-a-century the band have been colouring our world with their vivid soundscapes, and have picked up a whole load of accolades on the way. With no signs of slowing down, MONO are soon to release their latest long player titled OATH, a cohesive collection of tracks that finds the band at a creative peak.

There’s something so very special about instrumental music, and it connects with the listener in a way that vocalised music can’t. It’s the lack of words which creates space for us to infer our own thoughts and feelings into the song and that makes for a more interactive experience. It’s something that MONO understand well, and that becomes immediately apparent on opening track ‘Us, Then’. Using tonality to great effect it has roots that dig deep into the listener’s soul, and the tone employed resonates on some deep, primordial level. It’s as if the music becomes part of our physiology, flowing through our veins and electrifying every nerve ending. It thus transpires that when the majestic title-track arrives we have already succumbed to the band’s charms and subsequently ‘Oath’ washes over us like a cooling balm that’s been sent to soothe these fragmented times.

Those already familiar with MONO will have an inkling of what’s in store here; the band certainly aren’t a quick sugar fix or a caffeine buzz; rather they are a slow release of energy. This collective are about building soundscapes that capture the enormity of something so large it can barely be comprehended. It’s a vast ocean weighing down on a shipwreck or a nowhere ending sky, and that’s precisely what ‘Run On’ captures. It is cinematic and will implant strong images in your mind’s eye, what those images are will be specific to you, but they are bound to be grandiose and will leave you basking in their monolithic brilliance.

While it is perfectly feasible to dip in and out of this album and listen to any one of these eleven tracks individually, it’s preferable to treat this record like an old school long player to fully appreciate its ebb and flow. And this album does ululate between the warm, crayon hues found on ‘Reflection’ to the glacial cool of ‘Hourglass’ via the icy, brittle ‘Holy Winter’, this is an album that lifts one up towards an azure sky at a certain moment, only to bring us down to earth the next, and it is this rise and fall, push and pull that stitches the album together in a cohesive whole, no matter what musical avenues the band explore. However, the album’s pièce de résistance is closer ‘Time Goes By’, a song of such power and ethereal beauty that it is sure to have grown men weeping.

Now celebrating their 25th anniversary, this Japanese four-piece are still finding ways to enchant and entice new and old fans alike, and long may that continue.

• Oath is released via Pelagic Records on 14th June 2024.
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Track List:

1. Us, Then

2. Oath

3. Then, Us

4. Run On

5. Reflection

6. Hear the Wind Sing

7. Hourglass

8. Moonlight Drawing

9. Holy Winter

10. We All Shine On

11. Time Goes By