black midi - anyone been tracking these?

LJ's response to this is a near enough perfect illustration of why the industry can't just drop stuff like this on people from above. In that the people most likely to be receptive to music like this are also the least likely to be receptive to feeling marketed to. They need to feel at least in part like they've discovered stuff for themselves which certainly doesn't happen once you get a whiff of 'industry buzz band'.

I dunno, maybe there's a vast untapped resource of 18 year olds who are open to hearing compressed prog rock and don't care about all that stuff at all.

There's merit to that analysis and I'll confess my eyes rolled when I read they were from the Brit school, but I wasn't sure about them aesthetically or musically regardless of this - the name, firstly, which is wholesale ripped from another style of weird music without even approaching the sort of insane dedication and ultra-maximalism promised by it - but then their flippant-but-not-punkish demeanour, their seeming abhorrence of melody - even weird, atonal melody; it's just not a concern of theirs beyond the absolute rudiments - and above all the lack of any sense that there's much at stake aside from showing off. It's hard for me to summarise exactly why I find them offputting but it might be the refusal of beauty, the yowling prating kiddish soullessness of it all, the lack of vision. IDK, I just have a bad feeling about them, no matter how good some of their grooves are (and tt has been persuading me around to 'Near DT, MI' at least). This isn't to discount the possibility they'll do something good later, of course, but the hype feels way premature - they're proficient musicians but the compositions are just not there yet for me

btw here's an example of some comparable math freaks who get how to use melody

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJxd_Lu8VPA

idk, plenty of melody in black midi to my ears. definitely more than other bands of their type imo

Guess I'm gonna see these kids tonight. I would definitely have bailed (out of standard don't-wanna-leave-the-house inertia) but my friend is very excited.

their drummer should be a treat

saw them last night, he's a force. room was packed and very enthusiastic.

Ok, so this was really great actually. They're definitely a rhythm band, but it hit really hard live, and they were very tight and controlled. The drummer is just ridiculously good (I tried to do my part by his fallen cymbal in the first song, he was looking around for assistance but no one ever notices that besides drummers). Lots of very enthusiastic kids at the show.

(Fwiw I just heard the KEXP performance; maybe the good ideas crowd out the bad once in the studio)

Bands with great drummers need more kudos.

They need more than just a great drummer though.

They need to drop the vocals for a start.

Played here in SF last night, pretty good I thought. Definitely already have a VERY busy and active fanbase, at least on a club level. (Also more varied than I would have guessed -- I was not the oldest person there by a long shot; I swear there was someone who was at least in her sixties getting into it right in front of me.)

A- from Christgau on his email newsletter

So I've been playing the album by Black Country, New Road, a seven piece from London that apparently came up in the same scene as black midi. There is a lot of Slint and American Football worship going on, but I think I love it? Definitely not something I'd have expected from Ninja Tune in 2021.

knew they had to get brought up eventually and this is about the right place to do it

I fucking loathe them with every fibre of my being, also they have the worst lyrics I've ever heard

https://genius.com/Black-country-new-road-algorithm-lyrics

other than that, how was the play mrs. lincoln?

Ha, I'll be honest, I had it on in the background while I worked and mostly had the lyrics tuned out. There seems to be nothing original about their approach at all, but the Slint / American Football sound they nail hits some nostalgic spot for me.

I don't know, clearly very divisive overall. They've got the the #2 album of the year over at RYM (I know, I know, but it's useful to see what others think) but it has a ton of 1-star reviews mixed in with all the 5-star ones.

Okay that particular song isn't on the album, I def would have caught those lyrics!

Like, there's something superficially redolent of good stuff in the sound, but imo they have neither songwriting skill nor ensemble chemistry to render that guy's vocals and lyrics anything other than the main focus, and my god, my *god*

Yeah, I was really hoping to like the BCNR album based on what I'd read. There's definitely some cool stuff going on instrumentally, and I feel like I could even appreciate the lyrics (which namecheck both black midi and Slint iirc) if they weren't sung like that, but man, those vocals...are not my kind of vocals.

this is like prog los campesinos

dug what i've heard of this album, but wasn't paying close attention. imago's disapproval is a good sign that i'll probably wind up liking it.

Lol his vibe is kind of 'if Matty Healy was an unbearable post-rock charlatan'

lol imago, the Pfork review made me think of you:

The 22-year-old wordsmith commands the studio while enunciating lyrics with a pompous-prefect quiver. Hearing their recordings for the first time, you might oscillate between irritation and intrigue. You might cringe, then cringe harder, almost enjoying it this time. It may feel like catching a sworn enemy at an open-mic night and realizing, aghast, that he is destined for brilliance.

He is 22, I would cut him some slack.

I'm glad they have a new album coming out, but...I think they may have accidentally become Primus.

https://bmblackmidi.bandcamp.com/album/cavalcade

Finally heard Black Country, New Road and somehow the vocals were worse than I was expecting, fucking intolerable

like it makes you question the entire concept of singing in music

thank you

new bm preview track considerably more promising than their debut. would go as far as to say it's great

also just discovered Squid, who appear to be bad in similar ways to BCNR

yeah they straight up sounds like primus

Digging the new black midi! Getting some major Hausu Mountain vibes from that cover art.

I def can see bc,nr not being everyone's thing, but considering some of the shit that gets tons of ilm love the vox aren't THAT bad.

New single is kind of amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tJ4ISRpl-Q

ok this album is going to rule

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4wgnx_Phrw

I like their fusion-y side, and even if I'm not particularly into their vocals, I'd rather have this than a jazz singer

first part has a real hyper almost Contortions vibe

i get why he has this new vocal style, but i kinda miss when he sang like larry blackmon from cameo

They kind of all sing, I assumed that was a different Black Midi kid

ah good point, probably

I just remember that from seeing them live (oh yeah, the short one with the Gang of Four look does the talking, that other guitarist does more of the singing, etc)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Won7s8xJYZM

here it is

still not really into their thing but much better than their debut

oh it's not even a close comparison

Heard this one about a dozen times so far, front-to-back, and it is an assured, creative improvement on Schlagenheim (which was a captivating debut). The recent KEXP set was going to be hard to top for me, but the studio versions of Slow and Dethroned do just that.... and Ascending Forth is a great closer. Can't wait to see them live once again.

there are more people talking about the new Frost album than this on ILM, lmao

always nice when a debut shows promise and the followup realizes it in a more satisfying way, this is v v good, and FUN which is always a plus

xp lol I wish

HERE'S your prog 3.0 lmao