3 out of 5

Label: Africantape

Produced by: Sacha Tilotta (recorded and mixed)

Like The Conformists minus some deconstruction and plus some math, Io Monade are another excellent addition to the guitar and drums and bass fits and spurts of the Africantape label.  Nary a track on ‘Impossible’ sits still; you’ll find yourself pausing to appreciate the interplay, the stops and starts, and the way the songs organically shift from one riff to the next.  You might also find yourself unable to really get into a groove, though, as well as unable to pinpoint exactly which track you’re on.  Unfortunately, like a left of mathy post-rocky groups of the modern era, Io Monade seem dead set against turning into the song, meaning that they’ll purposefully veer right when you’re expecting a left.  Yes, this serves the purpose of always sounding off-kilter and encouraging the group to continually string hooks together, but it doesn’t necessarily help things shape up into cohesive “songs” that form an “album,” nor is it smooth enough to function as a jam session.  But: you might be the type to just dig on instrumental actionry, like me, and something that is appreciated about the group’s style is that they’re not out to wring any new tricks from the formula: this is really just guitar, bass and drums, creatively intermingling.  And though the songs continually bounce around, there is a followable lineage from one section to the next.  So despite the album’s inability to appreciate its own riffs, there is, juxtaposingly, an organic structure kicking around in the background.

Elsewhere, Edoardo Baima’s Ex-Models-ish vocal yelps are a distraction, and the album could have done without them.  Indeed, the last two tracks, each 7-minute epics, mostly dispense with the singing, and it seems like the group is more willing to focus on actually building up to conclusions then.  It’s a shame that they couldn’t spread this patience out a bit more, but it’s also encouraging to have the album end with a long string of excellent moments.

Worth a listen, though will probably remind you of other things you’ll end up listening to more.