Their contemporaries such as Sigur Ros from Iceland, Scottish band Mogwai and Canadians Godspeed You! Black Emperor play a similar brand of experimental loud-quiet music and have also rejected the post-rock label.

Mono's members are guitarists Takaakira Goto and Yoda, Tamaki Kunishi on bass guitar and glockenspiel, and Yasunori Takada on drums.

Goto says: 'We love classical music and draw a lot of inspiration from its sound. It's interesting that we've been called a 'new classical' band and I think it suits us in a way. Especially now that we're growing older as a band, we've taken our music in more of a cinematic direction.'

Cinematic is an apt description for Mono's music. It's as if they're creating soundtracks to films that haven't been made yet. The quartet construct slow-burning, sweeping crescendos of sound that have more in common with classical structures than rock'n'roll. 'We just want to be able to continue our own style and watch it grow. Our music will be categorised no matter what we do and as long as we can continue to make albums, then we are happy.'

They do make albums, but Mono insist they're primarily a live band - and in recent years they've established a successful partnership with famed analogue producer Steve Albini (of Big Black and Shellac fame), who has captured the raw beauty of their live performances on the studio albums Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined, and You Are There.

It's a huge, powerful and emotional sound, and this Saturday Mono will be pouring it all through the Hitec Auditorium - the same venue where Mogwai raised the roof almost exactly a year ago.

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