Black Midi - Cavalcade Review
Cavalcade advances their sound in a much more colourful way, with more jazz influences taking centre-stage, while not entirely usurping the noise rock of their debut.
Schlagenheim, black midi’s debut album, created a real ripple of excitement among music nerds after its release in 2019. The musicianship was second to none, “their drummer is incredible”, and they seemed to appear from nowhere with a well-produced, professional-sounding album, likely aided by their links to the BRIT School, after two singles and very little press. For me, however, this album has lost a fair bit of its appeal since that initial excitement. Returning to it now, it definitely has its moments, closer ‘Ducter’ stands out to me, but as a whole package it seems a little overly dense, at times seeming to put making the music difficult to play over making it enjoyable to listen to. Cavalcade, from certain people, could definitely have the same criticisms thrown at it, but for me it advances their sound in a much more colourful way, with more jazz influences taking centre-stage, while not entirely usurping the noise rock of their debut. Its beauty is certainly more obvious than that of Schlagenheim; whether you choose for that to be a positive or negative change is up to you.
‘John L’ opens the show here, both the opener in the tracklist and the first single released in anticipation of the album. It took a while for this track to warm on me, at first it seemed only to work in tandem with the excellent music video, making this track almost into a piece of absurd performance art. The video really is a wonderful complement to the music, illustrating clearly the track’s concept of a cult leader losing control. Unique, conceptual and bizarrely humorous, ‘John L’ is a great track, and exactly the sort of direction I was hoping to see black midi go in. My only criticism of the track is the way the studio version is so easily topped by the KEXP version — it’s a shame the brass section was only brought in after recording the album as it adds a real flair on top of the already great sound.
A somehow satisfyingly jarring transition then takes us to ‘Marlene Dietrich’, a much calmer, more stripped-back track — it really shows the range that black midi are capable of trying their hand at, and doing so successfully. The band have described the album as being like a procession, a cavalcade if you will, of different characters, each taking central stage to tell their story or have it told. These first two tracks convey this feeling brilliantly, feeling almost like two parts of an absurd cabaret show. Again taking an unusual concept, this track seems to tell the story of singer Marlene Dietrich attempting to rouse troops during the Second World War, while struggling with criticism of the sexual implications of part of her act, with the shuddering audience member commenting “An orgasm renders any queen a witch”). ‘Diamond Stuff’, the other more stripped-back song on the album, is a little less successful in fulfilling this sound though. Another sombre tale, from the perspective of a corpse found in a diamond mine, taking almost three minutes to explore any more interesting sounds. That said, by the end of the track, the band do manage to find a tone of melancholic elegance.
‘Chondromalacia Patella’, the last single released ahead of Cavalcade, I find to be the weakest: a disappointingly shining example of the criticism that black midi’s music is “too dense”. Sonically harking back to the noise rock of their first album, the mix of this track makes what should be a stand-out moment of energy and noise sound somewhat hollow and flat. There’s a slight lack of melody to this track for me, and the flat mix makes it difficult to appreciate the layered instrumentals. The metal influence on the back end of the track is pretty interesting, but the execution there also still feels like it’s missing something. The guitar tone is great though. ‘Hogwash and Balderdash’, the other noisier track on the album, executes this sound with a lot more of the eccentricity and charm black midi are, at their best, able to offer. The words hogwash and balderdash almost sound like they were made just to be spluttered out by Geordie Greep as he does. The franticness of this track, with its pulsating instrumentals, works really well alongside Greep’s idiosyncratic vocal performance, leading to a much more fun listen than with ‘Chondromalacia Patella’.
The second single, ‘Slow’, one of the jazziest tracks on the album, is a real stand-out for me. The guitar arpeggios coating a soft instrumental are really pretty, and then the song just lets rip – or seems to at least – before softening back down; only by the third attempt does it finally explode and it stays exploded. The vocal performance seems a little underwhelming at first, but its dejected sound reflects the subject matter a little better, the song seeming to be about the narrator waiting endlessly for something, before being shot and slowly dying at the end, but “it’s just consolation”, maybe that’s what they were waiting for the whole time.
‘Dethroned’, for me, is the strongest track on the album. The bassline is really groovy, reminiscent of that of ‘Forever Dolphin Love’, but with tension more akin to King Krule’s version of the track. While it may possibly be the most accessible track on the album, its teasing guitar, changing tempos, distorted vocals and conceptual lyrics mean that it would be more accurately accessible by black midi’s standards, and it is all excellently executed. Those lyrics depict a fall from grace, while the character is also in denial of this, believing it to be just a “blip”, wanting to keep it a secret, and not allowing themselves the sympathy needed because ego gets in the way.
A musical fourth-wall break, the closer ‘Ascending Forth’ is another calmer piece, helping as the others do to break up the tempo and density of the rest of the record. Despite this calmer aesthetic, there is still an air of grandeur to this closing track, as it tells the tale of a composer, Markus, who seems at first to be suffering from writer’s block, unable to write anything other than ascending fourths. However, when he tries to write something more original, he is then apprehended by some sort of music police. It’s a bizarre dystopia described here, but in a way that is right up black midi’s street.
Rhythm, tempo and absurdity have been all but perfected by black midi between their debut and this sophomore record. The cabaret of characters presents an interesting concept, well executed and leaving the curious listener with a good few Wikipedia pages to trawl through — the John Frum Cargo Cult possibly referred to by the title John L being among the more interesting. There are some moments where complexity seemed to be valued over songwriting, but overall this still makes for an exciting second step in black midi’s journey.
