Black Midi – Schlagenheim

Album of the month in Musikexpress. A bloody young London jazz band staging the most convincing math rock of the modern era. Seeing this band live, the intricate density of the music makes it hard to believe it's just a four-piece; their debut adequately captures this soulful insanity: a production whose excess is intentionally irritating. Each of the 9 tracks is a playful excess that leaves the listener reeling. Their flair for noise cascades, stop and go dynamics, antagonistic instrumental runs like unison passages, laconic cool vocals and an insane mixture of organisation and deconstruction plumb a dizzying music that contains everything imaginable in experimental rock music from post-punk to prog rock: Battles meets early Swans, Can meets 65 Days of Static and last but not least Captain Beefheart rolls with Don Caballero. Oddly enough, it all adds up to stringent songs here. Elegant over-snappiness. * Rough Trade