CAVALCADE

So, here's the minority report. Tons of praise for this release. Five stars, top release of the year. An essential prog release. Well, not for me. I don't hear why most reviews call this a masterpiece. Noise is an integral part of the music of black midi. Almost the most important part. Shrieking violin and sax, flailing up and down the guitar neck, heavy synth patches, and over-processed spoken words. Not rapped, but spoken. Like a William Shatner or Lou Reed recording.

"John L" has a repetitive string arrangement with someone talking over the music. There are some unsettling parts, some of the piano riffs sound like a three-year-old trying to play, and lots of noise and dissonance. I like dissonance if it's done in a musical way, like Thelonious Monk did. black midi does not do it in a musical way, they do it to create a creepy uneasy feeling. Like music for a horror movie.

"Marlene Dietrich" is a short very poppy sounding song that is a break from the chaos of the first tune, but it's a very forgettable song. Sounds corny, like a bad pop song from the 70's. This song is out of place and does not really fit with anything on the rest of the album.

"Chondromalacia Patella" starts with a Red Hot Chili Peppers funk vibe. The tune moves on and during the one chord breakdown it's accented by an unpleasant shrieking synth noise. Next, the song morphs into a djenty part, and then vocals are added but so low in the mix you can't understand them. More noise, shrieks, and then the song fizzles out with crescendo of noise and ends with a synth bleep.

"Slow" begins with a similar djenty riff from the previous song. There are some passages that are cool, almost jazzy, nice sax solo, and the drummer really cooks on this song. There are more spoken words throughout this song, again barely audible. Maybe they are using the spoken words as enhancement to the noise. Not a bad song, but nothing earth shattering.

"Diamond Stuff", another repeating mellow riff, with the melody line (the odd sounding string instrument) playing mostly one note, meanders along doing not much. More inaudible reverb-soaked spoken words appear about 2'11" into the song. Song continues to drone on until 4'20" then a jazzy interlude takes over combined with multiple vocals drenched in reverb that add nothing but noise. This continues repeating itself till the song ends, two minutes later.

"Dethroned" starts with a sax and a cool drum beat, the bass and guitar come in. The impact of the song is immediately lessened with those awful processed vocal sounds. Again, the lyrics are inaudible to me. At 3'38", the groove changes, great bass line and drumming - the band is cooking, but the noise, spoken words or whatever it is, returns and overwhelms the ending.

"Hogwash and Balderdash" another repetitive groove with spoken words that again are mixed too low to make them intelligible. Hints of Primus and King Crimson. Lots more noise.

"Ascending Forth" begins with an acoustic guitar, sort of a folky tune. The singer actually sings, but I can't say enjoy his voice. Not as much added noise on this song as previously.

Overall, I would say "Slow" and the last two minutes of "Dethroned" are good, but are marred by added noise that takes away my enjoyment of the music. The other tracks do nothing for me, so I can't say this is an essential prog release.