Black Midi – “Chondromalacia Patella”

Anthrox Studios

Black Midi – “Chondromalacia Patella”

Anthrox Studios

We are getting very close to the release of Black Midi’s second album, Cavalcade. Before today, the volatile UK Band To Watch have shared three singles from the project: There was the double drop of “John L” and “Despair” on the day they announced it, and then “Slow” a few weeks later. Now, ahead of Cavalcade‘s arrival next week, we get one more advance track.

“Chondromalacia Patella” is named for a band member’s running-related knee injury. It’s one of those gnarled, combustible Black Midi songs that wrings a lot of impact out of the switch between tense, twitchy upper-register sounds and aggressive dive-bombed low end. You could say it sounds like tectonic plates shifting? While apocalyptic fire is raining down on Earth? And some British bloke is in need of physical therapy?

In addition to the new song, the band has announced that it will premiere Cavalcade in a YouTube livestream on May 26 at 2PM ET, two days ahead of the official release date. Additionally, they’re doing a fun promotion: One standard Cavalcade LP in the US and one in the UK will have Golden Tickets in them. If you are lucky enough to receive one of these, you can redeem it for one of three prizes:

1) black midi will be the function band for an event of your choice
2) One day in the studio with black midi for a creative collaboration
3) Guestlist spots for two people for all future worldwide black midi headline live shows for 10
years.

Exciting! And so is “Chondromalacia Patella,” which you can hear below in a music video by Vilhjálmur Yngvi Hjálmarsson.

Cavalcade is out 5/28 on Rough Trade.

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