Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined

Kerrang!
"...all inspired by a wide-eyed incomprehension at the terrors of the modern world. It's there the beauty lies...10/10."

Product Description
Tokyo’s Mono is a peculiar group. While most bands offer up their sincerest and most genuine recordings in their infancy and spend the rest of their careers trying desperately to rediscover their youthful energy, Mono's trajectory has been quite the opposite. This flourish of hopeful creativity was captured by Steve Albini in the form of the eight pieces that make up their third album Walking Cloud And Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered And The Sun Shined. More lush and orchestral than previous recordings, the album couples an overall slow-melting ambience with a thunderous drive that reaches far greater heights than the band’s earlier work.

Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined

Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined,Mono,Temporary Residence,Adult Alternative Pop/Rock,Experimental Rock,Instrumental Rock,Japan,Noise-Rock,Pop,Post-Rock/Experimental,Rock,Rock/Pop,Trip-Hop

Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined

Average customer rating:

immerse yourself in this
beautiful music sadly mistaken for another band, yet brilliant....
What is this?
the soft - loud confusion
don't concentrate on anything

Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined
Mono
Manufacturer: Temporary Residence
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Similar Items:

One Step More and You Die
Under the Pipal Tree
At the Soundless Dawn
Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun
Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven

ASIN: B0002ZDVR2
Release Date: 2004-10-05

Tracks:

16.12
Mere Your Pathetique Light
Halcyon (Beautiful Days)
2 Candles, 1 Wish
Ode
The Sky Remains The Same As Ever
Lost Snow
A Thousand Paper Cranes

Album Description

Tokyo's Mono is a peculiar group. While most bands offer up their sincerest and most genuine recordings in their infancy and spend the rest of their careers trying desperately to rediscover their youthful energy, Mono's trajectory has been quite the opposite. This flourish of hopeful creativity was captured by Steve Albini in the form of the eight pieces that make up their third album Walking Cloud And Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered And The Sun Shined. More lush and orchestral than previous recordings, the album couples an overall slow-melting ambience with a thunderous drive that reaches far greater heights than the band's earlier work.

Customer Reviews:

immerse yourself in this.......2006-05-19

listen to it straight through, all at once. remember what a music experience used to be. let them take you somewhere new. let it build. there is magic here. if you have an adventurous spirit or seek something new, soulful and slightly dangerous, then please give this a try. there is yet hope for guitar bands. but think of the creative explorations of 'godspeed you black emperor' rather than the lame redundancy of 'lynyrd skynyrd'.

beautiful music sadly mistaken for another band, yet brilliant...........2006-03-26

Obviously, there are 2 bands called Mono. This one is the one that creates brilliant pieces of music that could be best described as among the post-rock movement. You can hear a lot of Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai in these recordings, but Mono has imprinted it's own signature self into the music so that it explores other realms of music rather than dwell in the genre of its influences. The cello is a great aid to adding a serene flow to the already smooth, beautiful pieces of music.

So listen to "16.12", "Halcyon (Beautiful Days)", and "Lost Snow" and you won't be dissapointed. Serene, lush, instrumental rock that needs to be heard to be understood.

What is this? .......2006-01-26

How could Formica Blues be so good and Walking Cloud so bad? The first two tracks sounded like trying to listen to music standing next to a moving train. The symbols are intolerable. Then the third track sounded pretty good until they started blasting without warning right in the middle of the tune. I tried listening to the fourth tune, gave up a ejected the CD.
They truly sound like a high school band in a garage trying to learn to play.

the soft - loud confusion.......2005-09-19

hello all.

i feel that 'walking cloud' is a very beautiful record, and deserves to be heard by many in its entirety. the sound-bites on amazon do not really do this record justice. a few seconds of 'halcyon' cannot truly tell the beauty of that song.

concerning what some other people have mentioned regarding this album, and some other records whose sound is akin to Mono's (explosions, godspeed, mogway, etc.), i have to say that to speak of the 'soft-loud-soft'ness of these records seems very superficial to me. yes, all these albums have their peaks & valleys if you will, but these seem to me to be intrinsic in the 'story-telling' of each record. to me it is very much like a baring of the soul, revealing all the good-bad, light-dark, the beautiful and the ugly.

in his 'decline of the west', oswald spengler wrote regarding classical music that the people of this time turned to instrumental music so that 'they might better express their relationship with God'. it seems that this is happening all over again with musicians who fall under the dubious umbrella of 'post-rock'. all seem to be trying to better express their relationship, perhaps not with god, but with themselves, no? personally, it does seem to me that their is something akin to religious ecstacy in some of these recordings, but this would be better left undiscussed, as i do not know any of these musicians personally.

this all being said, 'walking cloud' is a rather beautiful record, and i look forward to more releases from these very talented & beautiful people.

don't concentrate on anything.......2005-09-01

yes, it's repetitive. that's been said. listening in the record store bored me to tears until i started doing something else. but this *is* good music for studying.. great for drawing - that's a reccommendation. i can't imagine setting them apart from Mogwai, though, especially in terms of what happens melodically as well as a similar approach to sonics and engineering in general, anyway...

yes, listen to tracks before you get it. get a few. play them and do something else. see how you feel.

Average customer rating:

Light at the End of the Tunnel
Wow, pick this up.
I am certain this is the Japanese group...
WHICH MONO?!

Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined
Mono
Manufacturer: 3d
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Japan | Far East & Asia | International | Styles | Music

General | International | Styles | Music

General | Soul | R&B | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Trip-Hop | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Adult Alternative | Pop | Styles | Music

Experimental Music | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

International | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B0001J0CJO
Release Date: 2004-04-26

Tracks:

16.12
Mere Your Pathetique Light
Halcyon (Beautiful Days)
2 Candles, 1 Wish
Ode
Sky Remains the Same As Ever
Lost Snow
Thousand Paper Cranes

Customer Reviews:

Light at the End of the Tunnel.......2004-09-21

(...)
Someone, somewhere once wrote that people into `post-rock' were normally bearded guys in their thirties wearing spectacles. Although the specks I wear are black shades to protect my eyes from the sun and try to look cool, I got on the defensive. What right did that bastard have to pin me down like that?

Thing is, if you have a burning passion for alternative music you're always looking for something new, you need that fix, some band to make you lose yourself again. I went through a lengthy phase where nothing `new' seemed to inspire me.
I was wasting my hard earned cash on a thousand bands that all had some whinging Thom Yorke soundalike on vocals.
There was a light at the end of the tunnel though. My friend was driving me around town when this mind-blowing music started seeping out of his car sound system. It was Mogwai and Labradford. I wanted those albums there and then. We spent the entire day searching every small indie record shop in Brussels. I can assure you I had `Young Team' and "Mi Media Naranja" before I returned home.
Since then quite a few bands have come along and taken this genre by storm. Explosions in the Sky and Tokyo's Mono are two fine examples . Four-piece Mono have it tough though. Just like all the other up and coming experimental/ instrumental bands, it's unavoidable that they will be compared to the likes of Mogwai, Godspeed You Black! Emperor and all the other post-rock pioneers that have come before them . The influence is there, no qualms about that. The trademark post-rock sound, passive-aggressive, the cinematic minimal violin /guitar parts leading on to some thunderous guitar explosion are present and hey, done with aplomb.
However the Steve Albini produced `Walking Cloud' is more melodic and reflective than their previous effort `One Step More and You Die'. The haunting `Ode' is an almost semi-classical number that proves that Mono are working on expanding their sound. To drive the point home, the following number, the two minute track `The Sky Remains the same as Ever' is a spaced-out orchestrated piece of music, like The Rachels jamming with Geir Jenssen /Biosphere.
`Walking Cloud' like most albums of this genre is a grower and needs its time to settle in. However rest assured that it's brimming with those dark brooding memorable moments that become your soundtrack to those cold, rainy winter nights spent at home.

Wow, pick this up........2004-07-07

For the reviewer that asked before, no this is not the "Formica Blues" Mono. This Mono is an instrumental post rock band from Japan, and their second release (first on Rykodisc. If you like bands like Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai, definitly check these guys out. Amazon has it for an extremely expensive price, but I just picked it up at my local record shop for $14. This CD is unreal, very intense and very beautiful. I fully recommend it!

I am certain this is the Japanese group..........2004-06-14

Only available as an expensive import until August or September. Great band! Saw them a few months ago in Chicago.

WHICH MONO?!.......2004-06-08

PLEASE, if anyone knows whether this is the "Formica Blues" Mono, post a review/reply here for all of us wondering out there!

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