3 out of 5

Produced by: Alexis Toussaint

Label: Africantape

Moving past my being an idiot and not realizing, at first, that this was a split release (“Why does this band sound so different on each side?”), Calva and Io Monade Stanca’s Africantape album is confusing fare, but one with intriguing highlights.

Io Monadae Stanca, belonging to the speedy, wiggedy-wonky mathy Ex-Models crowd (that’s an official genre description), stick to that model, with high-pitched vocals and zippy guitar licks and drumming, but I gotta hand it to the group for attempting something fresh with the format, going for indie operatic heights with one, 20-minute long song.  And it’s not just various riffs that happened to be titled as one: the stuff fits together, ebbing and flowing in intensity.  Monade’s skronk sometimes feels like a put-on instead of inspired, so half the time, some of the compositional complexity feels like it could’ve been peeled back to reveal something more powerful, but overall, it’s a neat extension of their catalogue.

Calva’s side is a bit of a mess.  The group doesn’t seem to know what they want to sound like, half in the electropop crowd on the first two tracks, and half-in Monade’s indie-wiggedy club in the middle, all delivered with a kind of half-hearted momentum that doesn’t capture one’s attention.  On the last two tracks, they sort of stop going for a “sound” and just find some grooves as a group; these are definitely enjoyable, and produce a sound that carries more weight, even if it’s just generic post rock riffing.