Schlagenheim

Eventually confronted with matching their scorched earth live shows at the risk of spectacular failure, hotly tipped South London post-punk-anarcho-prog-noise-rock amalgam Black Midi went for the characteristically slippery on Schlagenheim; a work of transcendent beauty. Not that the fires have been put out entirely; ‘near DT, MI’ and ‘bmbmbm’ are on the verge of implosion. But then there’s ‘Western’ and ‘Of Schlagenheim’, blue-sparked lining of the inferno, gorgeous as they are alarming.