Complicated Animals – ‘In This Game’ EP (album stream) (Premiere)

Monica da Silva and Chad Alger live up to their name as a duo: Complicated Animals. With their debut EP, In This Game, the two aim at crafting a new sonic called “Indie Nova”, a deceptively complex mix to pull off. Indie rock is not particularly renowned for rhythmic prowess, whereas tricky meter and rhythm is a central feature to bossa nova. Of course, in the hands of able musicians, even the most complicated of animals can be reconciled, which is certainly the case for da Silva and Alger’s debut outing.

Below you can stream In This Game EP in preparation for its release next week.

da Silva tells PopMatters about the EP, “Chad and I set up our studio in a cabin in the woods in Michigan, and recorded these songs over the past year. We really wanted to kind of isolate ourselves, connect with nature, and allow whatever came naturally with our songwriting and production to flow. It was really important to us to fit a complete album experience onto this 6-song EP, so we really took our time crafting these songs to make sure the arrangements were just right. Although we usually perform as a duo, Chad and I both play a whole band’s worth of instruments between us. As we were really close to playing nearly everything on my last album, Brasilissima, we challenged ourselves to play everything on this EP.”

In This Game is out on 10 February via Socialite Fiasco Music. You can pre-order it via iTunes and Amazon.