SCHLAGENHEIM

The debut album by black midi at first sounds like an aggressive morass of noisy math rock - think rhythms and musicianship akin to math rock and textures and post-punk influences not too far from what the noise rock crowd like.

Listen closer, though, and it becomes apparent that their roots run deeper than that. After all, one of their earliest releases was extracts from a live performance backing none other than Damo Suzuki; deep within the rhythms of black midi's work is the motorik pulse which drove Krautrock units like Can.

As such, their subsequent evolution away from this sound into a more avant-prog style was signposted well in advance, the band showing their command of the history of experimental rock music from the start. The end result is an effort which will please adventurous math rock listeners and fans of the more aggressice end of Krautrock.