Cavalcade is a huge step up in the band's still super short career. black midi sound more mature with extravagantly grand and meticulously detailed sound. They embrace extremely opposing spectrums of volume with each track.
There have been few bands as unpredictably chaotic as black midi over the past few years. Back in 2019, the young UK band's breakout debut album Schlagenheim seemed to have come out of nowhere. Signed to Rough Trade, black midi blew up from viral live performances and buzz across indie internet blogs and sites. They gained a cult following due to their unpredictable nature and explosive crazy fusions of post punk, rock, jazz, folk, metal, noise, electronic and math rock. At the time it turned a lot of people's heads including mine. This led to many other young UK acts sprouting up in similar genres of post punk like Shame, Dry Cleaning, Squid and Black Country, New Road (all of which released great new albums this year, the majority I've reviewed). Of course the big question after Schlagenheim was: what would black midi do next? Notably during the recording process of their next album, guitarist Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin would be taking a hiatus due to mental health issues. Take a break Matt if you need to! The album has a new producer and the band planned more of the writing out rather than improvise heavily like their last album.
Cavalcade is the result and boy, it's yet another monster of a record. The album features more of a theatrical and cinematic sound with strings, epic progressions and transitions. The album's tracks vary in volume; they're either really quiet and sparse or they're absolutely loud ragers. Just because the band planned more this time doesn't mean it's predictable. The album presents you with a million different paths and take you to ones you didn't even know existed. "John L," the album's lead single and opener, is one wild trip. It sounds like a demented, dark and tortured take on "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" with its sharp guitar licks and rapid fire pacing. The lyrics are pure nonsense and I'm sure that's the point. It shifts directly to "Marlene Dietrich," which is the polar opposite of the previous track. It's beautifully gentle with its swaying strings and lead vocalist Geordie Greep sounds surprisingly romantic and charming. "Chondromalacia Patella" features squelching saxophone and abrupt guitar chords that slice you in half. The finish to the track is mind melting: it sounds like a computer going at a million miles a second, getting ready to explode in glorious fashion. "Slow" features a vocal lead from bassist Cameron Picton and is arguably the album's most captivating performance. The instrumental and tone are super intense and the song's dark explosiveness towards the end is a rewarding payoff.
Much of the quiet and cinematic songs on the record, specifically "Diamond Stuff" and "Ascending Forth," have this very quiet and charming take on freak folk and indie rock. The lush instrumentation sounds like it is directly pulled from Grizzly Bear's Yellow House record (the resemblance on non-album single"Despair" is uncanny). I wouldn't be surprised if it's what they were listening to in the studio. "Hogwash and Balderdash" picks up where "John L" left off with its speedy pace and quirky guitar grooves. The sharp string and piano screams throughout the track are unexpectedly scary. It's the closest thing to horror on this album. "Dethroned" has some of the stickiest guitars on the album, they sound similar to that of the glitchy, noisy guitars from a Battles record. The closing track "Ascending Forth" is the album's most epic at nearly ten minutes in length. It's a fantastic resolution to the album's intense climactic points.
Cavalcade is a huge step up in the band's still super short career. black midi sound more mature with extravagantly grand and meticulously detailed sound. Considering that this is only the band's second album, it's an even more impressive feat. Despite not having guitarist Kwasniewski-Kelvin on the record, they still sound thick as thieves with tighter performances and larger than life production. I really enjoyed the sporadic and wild unpredictability from Schlagenheim but I enjoy the planned out details and complex nature of what the band is presenting with Cavalcade. It's a different and of course unexpected take that is beyond impressive. I absolutely cannot wait to see what black midi will do next. Whatever the third album will sound like, I'm sure it will be not be what I expect. If there's any band that we need to put our attention on, it would have to be black midi.
My Rating: 8 / 10
Favorite Songs: "John L," "Slow," "Chondromalacia Patella," "Dethroned"
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