<p><span><span>- British experimental rockers black midi have returned with <em>Cavalcade</em>, an album full of poised and poisonous tracks that break all the rules. black midi fuse genres, creating hybrids of hybrids, and though it’s only been two years since their debut, <em>Schlagenheim</em>, their comedically spontaneous array of instruments, help to create an album that soars above the hype.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>To suggest that black midi are a band that were at risk of a sophomore slump is an arbitrary statement to begin with. 2019’s <em>Schlagenheim </em>was a record that took equal inspiration from <strong>Slint</strong> and inner city gentrification, <strong>King Crimson</strong> and Flint, Michigan; like a revolving door to rehab, black midi embraced chaos. That couldn’t be more true of <em>Cavalcade</em>, which closes with <em>Ascending Forth</em>, a track which presents as a night at a jazz bar, before descending into disorienting hysteria; I imagine it could be conceived as a musical accompaniment to the film <em>Climax </em>by <strong>Gaspar Noé</strong>. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span><em>John L</em>, the twisty, uncanny valley lead single shifts like tectonic plates under black midi’s earthquake, resulting in a song that strings out piano and an assortment of instruments as if the futuristic, baroque <em>Westworld</em> opening titles were deformed. It fucking slaps! <em>Chondromalacia Patella</em>, named after the injury suffered by an unspecified band member, tethers itself together in the same way that a runner’s knee would heal. Not knowing which elements of the song come from this place of recovery, it serves to unify their intensity as a band. Though one of their founding members has temporarily stepped back for this record, black midi sound as tight as they did on <em>Schlagenheim, </em>choosing to shift their structure as a band, then replace and reconvene.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Their penchant for the strange and sinister doesn’t solely show its face on their grandest tracks. <em>Diamond Stuff</em>, at the record’s midway point, is an eerie post-rock musing that carries a sharp and uncomfortable ambience. <em>Marlene Dietrich</em>, named after an actress that frontman <strong>Geordie Greep</strong> says, “was someone who couldn’t really dance, couldn’t really sing, wasn’t the greatest actor and spent all her years in Hollywood on the wrong side of thirty, but she had that indefinable but undeniable quality: incredible presence.” The track captures the essence of old Hollywood with a <strong>David Bowie</strong> like aura. It’s glam rock, but measured and reserved, distilled in the same way black midi do across <em>Cavalcade.</em></span></span></p>
<p><span><span>black midi’s esoteric rock leaves you dazed and confused, trying to grasp onto the meaning of these youthful psychopaths as <em>Cavalcade </em>tumbles by at maddening pace. Though it may take several listens to sink your teeth into it, the chemistry -both how right the band feel and how deliciously wrong their music does - makes it all worthwhile.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>- Sean Tayler.</span></span></p>
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