Search - Mono: The Sky Remains the Same as Ever on DVD

Without any words...

E. Monsanto | 02/16/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Just like their music, this dvd can't be described with words because words will put a preconceived idea for the emotions and feelings that music can represent in a very subjective way. You just have to watch it, experience it...It's just amazing to see how music can touch people in such a way (look for all the audiences cameos), and be completely instrumental. If you know mono already, you know what I'm talking about and probably you know what to expect from this dvd. If you don't know them and consider yourselves fond of post-rock emotive greatness, this is a very good place to begin your journey."

Until the better film arrives, a fan filming

G. Mosley | Georgia United States | 04/22/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"MONO is still in the "cult" and "avant garde" bin, if record stores exist anymore, and so it is not shocking that a "The Last Waltz" style film portrait hasn't been created. This DVD seems to have been created with high end amateur grade video equipment, as it is all hand held on the performances, and there is precious little editing. It would seem, from the filming, that there were no second cameras involved or alternate performances to edit to and from, and so everything is not only one-shot-live, but one view.

I never thought that a concert film could make me wish for a bolted down camera, but this one has. I forgive, gladly, the videographer's enthusiasm. I share it. However, the videographer had a crouch (except during one track from "One More Step and You Die," when he or she seemed to want to literalize the album's title by wandering through the band during a crescendo) on the side of the stage, and the sound seems to come from the stage. Why is that bad? Well, the sound on stage consists of monitors. Why is that bad? The bass guitar is fed "d.i." (direct impedance) into the house mains. That means that the bass is hardly audible out of the monitor speakers, and the vocalist, if there is one, is at "10," followed by the guitars. Watching the DVD, the viewer sees the audience members fired across the room by the bass and drums, but he or she hears the guitars.

I forgive all of this. I bless the DVD and am pleased with my purchase. I felt, though, that I was better off listening to my CD collection, as MONO is a disciplined, musically trained group, and so the stage performance is nearly note perfect the same in tempo, and the songs are so intricate that there is little room for bending the structures. Thus, there was little to see except a guitarist's elbow or faces of audience members (I wanted to see MONO, not be on stage), and the sound was biased.

Oh, Temporary Residence, I will keep buying these products, and I will hope that there is soon a designed postcard from the group that lives up to the magisterial sounds they make."