Wiki
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Release Date
21 June 2019
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Length
9 tracks
"Schlagenheim" is the debut studio album by English rock band black midi, released on 21 June 2019 through Rough Trade Records. The band recorded the majority of the album over a five-day period with producer Dan Carey at his studio in South London. Throughout its recording, the band made the conscious decision not to replicate their live set, embellishing their four-piece setup with synthesizers, sequencers, drum machines, banjos and organs, whilst the music was developed organically through extensive jamming sessions.
"Schlagenheim" received praise from music critics, being nominated for the 2019 Mercury Prize and appearing inside the top-ten of several year-end lists. It also peaked at number 43 on the UK Albums Chart.
On "Schlagenheim", black midi craft "cathartic" experimental rock, yielding a "surprising amalgam" of jazz fusion, math rock, noise rock and post-punk.
At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, "Schlagenheim" received a score of 82, based on 20 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Paul Glynn of the BBC claimed that the album "has been described by critics as everything from thrilling to frustrating." "Schlagenheim" was praised for the technical proficiency of the musicianship, with Paste, Pitchfork, Tiny Mix Tapes and The Guardian singling out Simpson's drumming as especially good.
In a positive review for Paste, Steven Edelstone says that Greep and Kwasniewski-Kelvin are "two of our most inventive contemporary guitarists" but that one of the few faults of Schlagenheim is that it doesn't "showcase Morgan Simpson’s frenzied drumming to its fullest extent." Edelstone praises Schlagenheim's unpredictability stating ""Schlagenheim" surprises at every turn, never settling into a predictable flow" later comparing it to "Trout Mask Replica" opining that like that album "it doesn’t always sound aurally pleasing, and it’s often tough to keep up, but it rewards those who try." Edelstone says that Schlagenheim is "one of the best albums ever heard" and "a masterpiece".
In a mixed review for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis praises moments of technical virtuosity in which the band "lock into a groove that manages to be hypnotically repetitious while constantly shifting and changing" but also said of the band "at their least appealing, there’s no doubt that Black Midi can sound pretty pleased with themselves it’s hard to avoid a sensation of po-faced seriousness, of music that exists largely in order to make its authors and fans feel superior". Petridis concludes ""Schlagenheim" is an imperfect, intriguing debut: behind the overheated prose lurks a young, self-conscious band who clearly aren’t as fully formed as the hype suggests for all its flaws, Schlagenheim is promising enough to suggest that watching them develop could be fascinating." Joshua Copperman of PopMatters says that although "on talent alone, black midi exceeds the hype" they are "technically proficient but emotionally shallow". Copperman cites "Of Schlagenheim" as an example of this stating that the track "bounces between atmospheric interludes and unhinged screeching but does both extremes no favors. There are so many ideas that they cancel each other out." He calls "Schlagenheim" "both the most promising and exasperating record of 2019."
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