This is the debut album from British experimental/math/noise rock/post-punk band, Black Midi, named after a compositional technique involving thousands and thousands of notes played all at once in a MIDI file, which if you don’t know, is a file that basically tells a keyboard or anything digital what to play. I thought that this technique was only used in meme covers on YouTube but turns out it’s an actual genre of music. These videos were often solo piano pieces that would often become this wild flurry of notes that somehow still sounded like a coherent song but a far more percussive and overwhelming one than the original song. And I feel like this is the spirit of the band, black midi: a cacophonous frenzy of notes and musical ideas that no one in their right mind would think would sound good together and yet somehow do. Now I’ve heard some noisy, experimental records before, so black midi was really nothing new to me, but the first time I heard bmbmbm, I was freaked out, but not enough to turn it off in fear. Fast forward to when John L comes to town and becomes my favourite song of that week, I think, “Huh, maybe I should take a look at this first album before Cavalcade, (the album with John L comes out in like a month). I doubt it’ll be as good as Cavalcade because both John L and Despair were amazing,” but I had to prepare myself. Now I think it’s the other way around. Holy crap on a cracker, this album is the most fun I’ve had all year. It’s an album that doesn’t quite do anything I haven’t heard before, but man does it do it well! Production is super tight outside of a few minor vocal mixing problems. The effects go from good to amazing as the album goes along. Every instrument is used to build this super dark, harrowing vibe that I absolutely love. But it’s not just dark, it’s also visceral and emotionally impactful. The composition is absolutely brutal, but it knows exactly when to push and when to relax. Contrast is everything, and albums that know how to do that are not only not one-dimensional, but bring out their emotion super well, like a certain You Won’t Get What You Want. The lyrics also help with this emotional impact that this album, like a sledgehammer, hits me with. These are somehow rawer than punk music at its peak. Geordie Greep’s vocals are absolutely insane and it fits the insane composition perfectly. Not to mention the lyrics are often insane. This album isn’t necessarily about…well…anything, but it just does everything well. I don’t know what it is about this album, but wow, it has really grabbed a hold of me that no other album has done before this year.
PRODUCTION
As chaotic as Schlagenheim is, it has a really balanced, well rounded sound. Every instrument from top to bottom is crystal clear and everyone is given a role. Drums are crisp all the time, and I always smile a little when I notice how they cut through with such clarity to add a nice jolt to the album. Bass is present and sounds great, whether as a main attraction or in the background. Speaking of low end, guitars sound crushingly heavy when low. When high, they are absolutely shredding and body-destroying noise and metal melodies and it adds to the visceral vibe of this album. There are also melodies that are subdued when the album goes soft, but you can still very much hear them. There are a few vocal mishaps that I don’t really like, especially on Years Ago, but otherwise it’s all quite good. I actually came around on the wispy sounding vocals on Speedway the more I heard them, even if they aren’t smacking me in the face like this album tends to do. What I’m trying to get at here is the best part about this album’s mixing is its dynamic range, though. The quiet parts are super quiet and the heavy parts are super heavy and the production accentuates that really well, which is super important to a ballistic album like this, or any album, for that matter. The highs are that much higher and the lows are that much lower and it’s more of a vibrant experience.
The effects on this record are pretty good as well. Of Schlagenheim’s opening is amazing with its panning guitars and synths sound at the beginning. Also, the panned ending of Reggae is super disorienting and adds to the insanity of this album. The panned reverb caked guitars on 953 leading into the verses give this album a stinging attitude like a mic drop. Reverb gives this record a little bit of a spacey vibe on Ducter. The warped vocals on Ducter is so cool and it adds a thematic layer to the song like the singer or the listener is on drugs or something. But it’s more of a solid rock sound focussed on heaviness with a little effect pizzaz sprinkled in for extra kick. Overall, production helps to make this album so much more explosive and satisfying.
COMPOSITION
The composition makes me bump this record in a way that I haven’t quite been able to do with anything I’ve heard so far this year. Guitars are why I really love this record. Diversity in tone and in mood is the name of the game here. Quiet electric guitars are super pretty and chill, almost like an easy, soft rock record at some points, but ominous, such as the middle of Speedway and Near DT, MI. The beginning of Western brings this beautiful line in to welcome you to the song, reminding me of orange western sunsets, only to smack you in the head with these bright electric guitars. No, I have not gotten used to it yet! Half of the time, the album opts to destroy you with these heavy guitars that are super full and super crushing every time. This fullness is helped in part by the bass, which is very much-needed low end. When it’s calm, its warmth really comes into play, like a warm hug at the beginning and end of Western. When the album gets heavy, the bass helps that and the result is absolutely magic. Speaking of magic, good LORD, the drummer is incredible! Morgan Simpson, the drummer of this band won an award for Best Young Drummer when he was a teenager and I’m glad he kept with that trajectory. The drums are so punchy and impactful that this album absolutely would not be half as good without their inclusion or their complexity. He guides the album through many time changes such as on 953, and he never gets out of pocket once. These guys are clear virtuosos on their instruments and they’re really playing some complicated, interesting stuff, but the vibe of the classic 4-piece* rock band is still there, which is super cool!
The structure of Schlagenheim gets better and better as this album goes along. As mentioned, 953 smacks us with multiple musical ideas one after the other at a rapid pace, but it somehow translates to something cohesive thanks to the transitions keeping it together. Song structure is tight, whether it wants to go experimental or not. Even Years Ago, with its clunky “Canada Songs” sensibilities, all ideas play out on this album beautifully. Western has a song structure that’s similar to the album structure of Animals by Pink Floyd, with nice, pretty bookends with a large, sprawling, epic middle section. I can’t talk about structure on Schlagenheim without talking about bmbmbm: a masterclass in this super important musical thing called tension. It’s a song that keeps building and building, giving us little tastes of the song’s power at the end of every chorus, then at the last leg of the song, explodes into this massive hard metal song. I guess that’s what I really like about this album: it’s explosive! Schlagenheim’s quiet parts are just as important as its louder parts because of its masterful use of tension. The album cover itself is a wave of…well, a lot of things all at once, but it all somehow still works, just like the album itself. It really goes to show the importance of structure and how, if you think hard enough, you can make a cohesive song out of any weird musical ideas you can think of.
LYRICS
Lyrics are interesting and so are the vocals. Let’s just say they’re an acquired taste, at least Geordie Greep’s vocals are. They kind of sound froggish, so I’ve heard. I’ve also heard comparisons to Talking Heads lead singer, David Byrne. I understand if the thought of that makes you go “huh” or “yuck”. But hey, Billy Talent is my favourite band in the whole wide world, and they are the kings of acquired tastes in Canadian pop music, also because of the voice, so I clearly have a few acquired tastes, one of them being, I like Greep’s voice. While it is not traditionally nice sounding, neither is this album half the time! This album is always expressive and a core contributor to that is the vocals from Geordie Greep. His voice is unlike anything I’ve ever heard before and it matches the fever pitch that this album likes to hit. From long, beautiful balladry on Western and the beginning of Of Schlagenheim to screaming on the end of Of Schlagenheim, bmbmbm and Ducter, this guy scratches a lot of musical itches. I also can’t not mention Cameron Picton’s vocals on Speedway and Near DT, MI, the former being super subdued yet ominous, and the latter unleashing the beast that sounds harder than the hardest punk music out there. I also kind of like the screaming, insane vocals on Years Ago, even if I don’t really jive with the production choices on that song. Oh well…
The lyrics are also quite satisfying and get just a little more insane from track to track. There’s no real concept to the record as a whole, but the tracks themselves are their own little, short stories that occupy their own little worlds most of the time. The front half has this kind of motif in mind, with songs about oppressive forces trying to control you, or even controlling self-doubt on 953, the latter is explored more on Reggae. Speedway is about the crushing nature of modern city life and the music industry churning out all the same crap (typical debut subject matter). Near DT, MI is this angry punk song about the lead in the water in Flint, Michigan and the government doing nothing about it while lying about the situation to prevent any panic or further action. Western is this epic anthem of self-affirmation after a toxic relationship, but also a feeling of nostalgia about it, which really builds a complex, interesting character out of the protagonist. But then the rest of the album is a descent into madness. Of Schlagenheim is a man finding a beautiful woman fitting his unfairly high standards “the teeth of a raven and the hand of a porcupine” and bmbmbm is locking her in his basement to get a new skinsuit like Buffalo Bill in The Silence of The Lambs…real crazy stuff. Years Ago is more paranoid delusions from the madman crash-landing into Ducter. Ducter is interesting to me because it could tell one of two stories. One, if we’re following this nice little narrative I’m spinning, this madman is not having a nice time with his therapist. Not even drugs or a lobotomy can change the psyche of this guy and he’s taunting the people who are “treating him”. The antagonist is not quite a doctor, but a ducter. Or if you go with a less cohesive approach, going back to the “own little worlds” thing, you could take the con-ducter approach that Genius seems to like with a student vs. teacher conflict. That interpretation reminds me of Whiplash with its central conflict and the Caravan-esque drums kind of help with that. Either way, lyrically, this song and the rest of this album is incredibly satisfying from beginning to end.
CONCLUSION
This album didn’t just exceed my already high expectations, it shattered them! Schlagenheim isn’t an actual word, but it is broken German, I guess, and it roughly translates to “hits home” and holy hell, does this album live up to that name! In theory, it’s nothing I haven’t heard before: it’s a bit of noise rock, punk, metal, etc. But it’s still somehow unique and nearly every idea still goes over really well. The mixing is super balanced and it emphasizes the importance of every single instrument on the album. It brings out dynamics as well, which makes the heaviest moments crushing and the quietest parts so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. The effects on top of the instruments emphasize the disorienting, crazy vibe of this album which makes it so unique and fun to listen to. Speaking of unique and fun to listen to, composition is top notch. Everybody’s great at their respective instrument and they really make each song interesting. Nearly all ideas on the record play out extremely well, even with a little cohesion thrown in there as something extra. It basically has everything I feel a good album should have: balance, tension, diversity, the whole shebang! And this is only helped by the vocals that are unique and expressive even if they are a bit to get used to. The vocals are a core contributor to the diversity and the madness of this album, given how expressive they are, leading the already expressive instruments. The lyrics are also fun to dive into as well. Concept or no concept, this album is terrific with interesting and emotionally impactful songs, even if that emotion is fear. Wow, this record is a fun, satisfying, chaotic, white knuckle ride and a fantastic statement of a debut album. This is black midi, and they make music that hits home.
FAVOURITE TRACKS: 953; Speedway; Reggae; Near DT, MI; Western; Of Schlagenheim; bmbmbm; Ducter
LEAST FAVOURITE TRACK: Years Ago
I’m giving this one a Strong 9/10.
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