Out-of-print on vinyl since shortly after its original release back in 2006, the inspired collaboration between Japanese Experimental Rock icons, MONO, and world’s end girlfriend has quietly and steadily gained an escalating reputation as one of the most powerful albums in MONO’s very large catalog of powerful albums. After nearly 20 years, “Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain” is now available on vinyl again. Newly packaged in a heavyweight old-style tip-on gatefold jacket with expanded artwork, the album is available in audiophile-quality black vinyl and limited-edition Iridescent Metallic Gold colored vinyl.
Just before recording their epic disasterpiece, “You Are There” in late 2005, MONO began collaborating with fellow Tokyo native and modern electronic composer, world’s end girlfriend. The result was a five-part suite of neoclassical grace and luminescence that defies easy categorization. As dark as the bottom of the ocean, and nearly as otherworldly, “Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain” finds MONO inhabiting an illuminated world previously only hinted at in their most orchestral compositions. Recorded in multiple studios in Japan last year, “Palmless Prayer” highlighted MONO’s increasing obsession with classical music with world’s end girlfriend’s mastery of subtle dynamic shifts. Forgoing their tendency to erupt into hellish bursts of speaker-destroying noise, MONO instead exhibited remarkable restraint, stretching song lengths up to and beyond the 15-minute mark and turning barely-there crescendoes into earth-shaking events. Less an epiphany and more a reminder of the beauty that already exists all around us, “Palmless Prayer” was a miniature panoramic view of the sea on an eerily still day, the current swaying at an impossibly laconic pace and the sound of a thousand tiny waves crashing in the distance all at once.
Purchase the album here: https://www.temporaryresidence.com/products/trr108
Purchase and Stream the albumon Bandcamp: https://monoofjapan.bandcamp.com/album/palmless-prayer-mass-murder-refrain
Tracklist:
1. Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain Part.1
2. Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain Part.2
3. Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain Part.3
4. Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain Part.4
5. Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain Part.5
MONO TOUR DATES:
Oct 30 – Bristol, UK @ The Fleece
Oct 31 – Manchester, UK @ Gorilla
Nov 1 – Dublin, IE @ Button Factory
Nov 2 – Glasgow, UK @ St Luke’s
Nov 3 – Newcastle, UK @ The Cluny
Nov 4 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Nov 5 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2
Nov 7 – Lorient, FR @ Festival les Indisciplinés
Nov 8 – Rennes, FR @ Antipode
Nov 9 – Saint-Lô, FR @ Les Rendez-Vous Soniques Festival
Nov 10 – Tourcoing, FR @ Le Grand Mix
Nov 12 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
Nov 13 – Antwerp, BE @ Trix
Nov 14 – Esch-sur-Alzette, LU @ Kulturfabrik
Nov 15 – Neunkirchen, DE @ Gloomaar Festival
Nov 16 – Hamburg, DE @ Knust
Nov 17 – Cologne, DE @ Gebäude 9
Nov 19 – Zurich, CH @ Exil
Nov 20 – Milan, IT @ Legend
Nov 21 – Rome, IT @ Largo Venue
Nov 23 – Zagreb, HR @ Vintage Industrial Bar
Nov 24 – Budapest, HU @ Turbina
Nov 25 – Vienna, AT @ Flucc Wanne
Nov 26 – Prague, CZ @ Rock Café
Nov 27 – Krakow, PL @ Kwadrat
Nov 28 – Warsaw, PL @ Klub Proxima
Nov 29 – Vilnius, LT @ Kablys + Kultūra
Nov 30 – Riga, LV @ Palladium
Dec 1 – Tallinn, EE @ Paavli Kultuurivabrik
