Release Date: Apr 11, 2006
Genre(s): Indie, Rock, Experimental
Record label: Temporary Residence
Music Critic Score
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Japanese power quartet Mono return with a fifth album, and their fourth for Temporary Residence. You Are There, engineered and mixed by Steve Albini, picks up the formula where he and the band left off on Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined. Much has been made of Mono's engagement and deployment of dynamics. While it's true that earlier recordings paid homage to the band's collective heroes and influences, Mono have increasingly carved out their own terrain in composition, recording, and performance.
It's been a couple of years since Mono’s last album, Walking Cloud.... In the interim, it must be said, their sort of instrumental, overtly cinematic rock has been less in evidence; even their label-mates Explosions in the Sky were quiet aside from a reissue of an earlier album. In fact, seems as though instrumental rock's been taken over by a heavier contingent, from Pelican and SubArachnoid Space to Grails and Kinski.