Live Review: Mono, Mick Turner

Innocuously seated side of stage, the Hi Fi's curtain rose to reveal the Dirty Three's Mick Turner strumming simple chords into a loop pedal. Understandably reminiscent of the Dirty Three's more sparse work, Turner built simple chords and abstract strumming into beats through his pedal. Each new layer danced in and out of the established groove before finding its place as a new beat. Most surprising was Turner's experimentation with a drum kit sampler, which was used more as another layering tool than as a mere beat machine. When the parts all worked and came together, along with Turner's violin bow playing on his guitar neck, the result was actually rather beautiful and entirely worthy of being placed alongside his famous band's more experimental work

Over their career, Mono have gradually moved from more noise and experimental work to a solid and lush cinematic approach, and it was that approach they brought to the appreciative Hi Fi crowd. With material primarily pulled from their most recent two records, the incredible Hymn To The Immortal Wind and patchy For My Parents, the Japanese foursome certainly paid little heed to their confronting origins. Lush soundscapes and crescendo-driven guitar pieces were the name of the evening, and there'd be little arguing that the band aren't masters of their craft.

The group were at their most captivating when they shrugged off notions of orchestral or cinematic music and let loose in the more passionate moments of longer songs. Mid-set highlight Pure As Snow had the band in full wall-of-noise mode, with guitarist Takaakira Goto leaping from his chair to violently beat his instrument and manipulate his pedal board by hand.

Live and stripped of studio overdubs and string section flourishes, Mono are forced to rely on their own abilities - the results should have them performing live as a foursome in the studio more often. The holes between sounds are either left beautifully sparse, or more likely, compensated for through innovate effect use and fuzzy droning. Whilst Mono's recorded output may be in danger of falling into derivative crescendo-core post-rock cliché, live they are as powerful as ever and a true testament to the potential power and majesty of instrumental rock.