CAVALCADE

Sometimes life just seems unfair, especially in the roughshod world of the music industry, even including its more modern indie niche markets . Bands come and go and some slog it out for decades hoping to hit their stride but never really gather more than a small loyal following. And then there are those bands that just seem to manifest a magic mojo that seems inhuman, the kind that exudes as a certain magnetism strong enough to overpower Magneto and like a rocket booster exhibit an uncanny ability to cut through the lines right out of the gate and strike a chord with the public in a seemingly instant connection with the world at large.

Such is the case of the London based BLACK MIDI who like many modern artists has a punctuation fetish and prefers to sport its moniker in the lower case and in such humility blurs the distinction between genres, fills the cracks in between and gleefully struts their idiosyncratic mashup of sounds without regard to the pigeonholing prospects of the music genre nazis. With a moniker that refers to a music genre that consists of compositions that use MIDI files to create scores containing a seemingly infinite number of notes all squished together like a rush hour subway train, BLACK MIDI in more than one way lives up to its moniker by adopting a similar approach with seemingly incompatible bed fellows existing in hitherto unthinkable cooperative efforts.

With genre defying leaps of faith BLACK MIDI burst onto the scene with 2019's "Schlagenheim" which displayed a seemingly distinct group of seasoned musicians who dexterously walked the razor's edge between the nonchalant detachment of no wave and the more intricate nerdy exhibitionism of math rock and post-hardcore. With virtuosic displays of frantic swells of distorted noise and irregular rhythmic oscillations, BLACK MIDI proved it was a cut above the grade with its abstract yet tangible emotive connective tissue that somehow latched onto that magic mojo that all artists strive to achieve but few actually succeed in conjuring into existence. And to top it off this was all the works of a group of wily teenagers barely out of high school. While all fine and dandy, nobody probably thought much about exactly where BLACK MIDI would go next in today's on again off again musical world.

Come 2021, a mere two years after the debut and BLACK MIDI are back with the jaw-dropping evolution that catapults the band's eccentricities into the stratosphere in the form of CAVALCADE, a densely packaged sonic attack that builds upon what came before but expands its tentacles in about every possible direction. Building upon the noisy math rock underpinnings of "Schagenheim," CAVALCADE injects a fiery infusion of jangled jazz sensibilities, ethereal post-rock and most importantly the jittery sonic terrain of avant-prog time signature workouts that would make classic prog stalwarts such as Yes or Gentle Giant gladly hand over the baton. Within this sonic maelstrom of a mere eight tracks BLACK MIDI unleashed one of the most intricately designed scores of the modern era that somehow simultaneously follows and breaks all the rules.

CAVALCADE seems to have everything going for it as it juggles technical wizardry, rhythmic opulence and cryptic psychedelic abstractness. Add to that a strong front man in the form of Geordie Greep whose grizzled vocal style belies his short time on the planet. Like many of these newer bands that have grown up in the on demand internet age, BLACK MIDI seems to have mastered the art of consciousness streaming where all the files of music samples tucked away in the gray matter just pour out in an organic flow of creativity in a place where such disparate musical experiences have fermented into a new elixir of sonic perspectives. It's utterly amazing how well CAVALCADE flows from the opening avant-prog infused "John L" through the surreal and psychedelic mid-section with tracks like "Diamond Stuff" to the orchestral grand finale of "Ascending Forth."

Even for hardened music lovers who have indulged in pretty much every genre under the sun, CAVALCADE will come as a slap in the face and a pleasant reprieve from the regularly scheduled program. Laced with everything from brutal prog angst to theatrical atmospheric orchestrations, CAVALCADE excels in its attention to detail laid out with an amazingly diverse soundscape including but not limited to the changing of vocal duties between guitarist Geordie Geep and bassist Cameron Picton. Imagine if you will, the rock in opposition sensibilities of Henry Cow, the early 70s jazz-fusion aspirations of Miles Davis and the post-rock steadiness of Tortoise all thrown in the cauldron with DNA inspired no wave and math rock vortexes of Slint or Ruins and you're on the right track. Gracefully indulgent and cleverly crafted, CAVALCADE is a truly amazingly unique album that showcases a wildly interesting band just getting warmed up! So far my pick for best album of 2021 bar none.