Andy Whitman Reviews Mono’s Latest

I’d completely missed that Mono had a live album entitled Holy Ground: NYC Live coming out, but Andy Whitman didn’t, and he’s just posted a review.

The 9 live tracks, spanning 80 minutes, are primarily taken from the band’s great 2008 studio album Hymn to the Immortal Wind, but there are a couple surprising choices as well, including two from the band’s 2004 collaborative re-mix album New York Soundtracks. The classical/post-rock hybrid is such an obviously fitting stylistic marriage that it’s surprising that it hasn’t been tried more frequently. Sigur Rós, with their collaborations with string quartet Amiina, have beautifully explored the quiet side of the equation. But Holy Ground fully explores the possibilities, and the results are everything one could hope for — brooding, serene, explosively powerful, and never less than lovely.

Hymn to the Immortal Wind is one of my favorite post-rock albums of the last 5 years or so, so I’ll definitely be checking out Holy Ground: NYC Live.