ZOOMERCORE
black midi - Cavalcade
On black midi’s sophomore album Cavalcade, the British Prog Rock band cement themselves as modern music royalty. Following the overwhelmingly positive reception of their debut album Schlagenheim, black midi fans have been as jitteringly hyped for their sophomore album as any fan base in recent memory. Black midi’s first album left music nerds eager to point out reference-points for the band - Slint, King Crimson, and Frank Zappa. And while elements of this sound still remain on Cavalcade, we also get sounds familiar of Steely Dan, Love and Radiohead.
If Schlagenheim was black midi’s OK Computer, then Cavalcade is In Rainbows. We hear elements that fans fell in love with on Schlagenheim - electric guitars, technical freak-out drums, chunky bass and Geordie Greep’s signature monotone signing - however, we also get the new sounds of serene acoustic guitars, humming drone organs, and swooning and subdued twittering horns. The album’s highlights are Chondromalacia Patella, Diamond Stuff, Dethroned, and closer Ascending Forth. Cavalcade takes the cold, chaotic and anti-social and mixes it with beautifully surreal and emotional. It’s like listening to a robot gain sentience and shed a tear to Miles Davis.
Even with immense hype, black midi was able to deliver a modern classic on Cavalcade. And amazingly I haven’t mentioned yet that the band’s median age is 21 years old. Here at zoomercore, we have been huge fans of black midi since we heard their debut single “bmbmbmbm.” We hope that Calvalde will bring the band’s fresh sound to new audience, and everyone will finally understand why Grace and I have been muttering “She moves with a puuuuurpose” for the past two years.