搬運(yùn)自：網(wǎng)易云音樂專欄【Music Online Zine Courier】（在原文基礎(chǔ)上添加了英語原文與排版調(diào)整）

翻譯：Beans_Beans?

The UK band stakes out even more ground on their glorious second album. The chord changes are more elaborate, the rhythms more twisted, the pretty parts prettier, the heavy parts heavier.

這支來自英國的樂隊(duì)在他們輝煌的第二張專輯中取得了巨大的成就。和弦的變化愈加精細(xì)、節(jié)奏愈加詭辯多樣，精彩的部分愈加精彩、沉重的部分愈加沉重。

Let’s start with the ending, an orchestral finale so grand it might as well come with a title card attached: That’s all, folks! The last two chords of Cavalcade, black midi’s second album, form a harmonic exclamation point that would have been recognizable to listeners even centuries ago, indicating that it was time to pack up their opera glasses and head home. After the previous 40 minutes of Cavalcade, an avant-rock labyrinth of maddening intricacy, navigated without any such conventional signposts, this is a perverse way to wrap things up. Arriving with an abrupt cut from the full band’s pummelling and caterwauling, the gesture’s familiarity makes it unsettling, surreal, like the punchline to an obscure joke. How could a record so full of noise and contradiction ever end on such a fine point?

讓我們從結(jié)尾開始走上這段旅程，這是一個(gè)宏偉的管弦樂尾聲，以至于可以附上一張卡片寫到：鄉(xiāng)親們，這一切結(jié)束了！black midi 樂隊(duì)的第二張專輯《Cavalcade》的最后兩個(gè)和弦構(gòu)成一個(gè)和諧的嘆號，即便將之送回幾個(gè)世紀(jì)前，普羅大眾也能識別出來——是時(shí)候放下歌劇面具打道回府啦。在專輯《Cavalcade》的前40分鐘后，便化身成了一個(gè)前衛(wèi)搖滾的迷宮，錯綜復(fù)雜，完全沒有任何傳統(tǒng)導(dǎo)向的影子，這是一個(gè)反常的收尾方式。隨著整個(gè)樂隊(duì)的劇烈敲擊和咆哮的突然中斷，這個(gè)姿態(tài)的熟悉感讓它令人深感不安、仿佛置身于超現(xiàn)實(shí)之中，像晦澀笑話一般捉摸不透。這張充滿了噪音和矛盾的唱片，又怎能在如此精巧的一點(diǎn)處結(jié)束呢?

black midi became a sensation among adventurous rock listeners almost immediately after releasing their first single in 2018, and with good reason. They were just out of high school but played like they’d been woodshedding for decades. There was something almost obscene about their early performance videos, that those gawky kids were playing like this. The giddiness you felt upon watching was not unlike that of seeing a particularly outrageous internet meme. They seemed to have completed multiple lifetimes worth of left-field listening by the time they made Schlagenheim, their debut album—The Fall, Touch and Go post-hardcore, Miles Davis in the ‘70s, King Crimson in the ‘80s—and channeled those touchstones in songs that were exuberant and alive rather than fussy and reverent.

black midi在2018年發(fā)布第一首單曲后，幾乎立即在狂熱的搖滾樂迷中引起了轟動，這是有原因的。他們剛從高中畢業(yè)，但他們所演奏的音樂聽起來卻像在叢林中生活了幾十年一般。這些愚蠢的年輕人玩世不恭，在他們早期演出的視頻中添雜有一些近乎淫穢的東西。當(dāng)你在觀賞他們的作品時(shí)所感到的頭暈?zāi)垦Ｅc看到一個(gè)離譜至極的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)訊息的體驗(yàn)并不相同。在他們制作首張專輯《Schlagenheim》時(shí)，他們似乎已經(jīng)完成聽好幾輩子左傾主義聆聽的壯舉——后硬核樂隊(duì) The Fall, Touch & Go、70年代的 Miles Davis、80年代的 King Crimson——并將這些先驅(qū)借用充滿活力的歌曲傳達(dá)出來，而非苛刻亦或虔誠。

The excitement had something to do with their dazzling instrumental expressiveness; drummer Morgan Simpson, especially, was like a free-jazz virtuoso going undercover in a punk band. It also involved guitarist and de facto frontman Geordie Greep, whose hectoring anti-charisma may be the band’s most distinctive element, whether you love his free-associative rants or wish he’d dial them back just a hair. (For me, and I suspect plenty of other fans, it’s a little of both.) Finally, there was the sense that black midi were discovering their powers in real time as you listened, an impression they heightened with frequent onstage improvisation. For all the hours they’d evidently spent doing their homework, the music never felt charmlessly studied or proficient. It was raw.

這種興奮與他們令人眼花繚亂的器樂表現(xiàn)力有關(guān)；特別是鼓手 Morgan Simpson，宛如一個(gè)自由行的爵士樂大師在一朋克樂隊(duì)中臥底一般。這也與吉他手也就是主唱 Geordie Greep有關(guān)，他恐嚇一般的反魅力可能是樂隊(duì)中最獨(dú)特的元素，無論你是喜歡他自由聯(lián)想式的咆哮，還是仍懷有一絲他能夠偏移回常態(tài)的僥幸。（對我而言如此，相信對絕大多數(shù)樂迷而言也是如此。）最終，你會深感 black midi 樂隊(duì)在實(shí)時(shí)發(fā)掘他們自身的力量，他們在舞臺上頻繁的即興演出使這一感覺更加強(qiáng)烈。盡管他們花費(fèi)了很多時(shí)間做功課，但他們的音樂從未讓人覺得是在刻意研究或精通，他們?nèi)员Ａ粲性鷳B(tài)的部分。

If there was any pressure to flatten out their idiosyncrasies for Cavalcade, they clearly rejected it. The album is a good deal more ambitious and more difficult than its predecessor, stretching even further in almost every direction that Schlagenheim staked out. The chord changes are more elaborate, the rhythms more twisted, the pretty parts prettier, the heavy parts heavier. Schlagenheim aspired toward jazz fusion and 20th-century classical; Cavalcade has passages that sound like Mahavishnu Orchestra and Olivier Messiaen. Schlagenheim had its fair share of dopey-awesome metallic grooves and guitar parts; Cavalcade comes thrillingly close, a handful of times, to Primus or System of a Down. Greep, who handles vocals on six of the eight songs, has upped his flair for the theatrical, abetted by new contributors on sax, violin, and keyboards. Listening to Schlagenheim, it was easy to imagine black midi kicking out the jams in a basement somewhere. Now, the imagined setting is more like a Hieronymous Bosch painting, or a three-ring circus. There is a vague but persistent feeling that someone involved might be wearing a monocle.

如果說要為《Cavalcade》的創(chuàng)作平添任何壓力，他們顯然杜絕了它們。這張專輯比前作更具野心，當(dāng)然也更富難度，是在《Schlagenheim》既定的幾乎所有方向上延伸的愈加長遠(yuǎn)。和弦的變化愈加精細(xì)、節(jié)奏愈加詭辯多樣，精彩的部分愈加精彩、沉重的部分愈加沉重。《Schlagenheim》向往的是爵士樂與20世紀(jì)古典樂的融合；《Cavalcade》有些段落聽起來則像 Mahavishnu Orchestra 和 Olivier Messiaen?！禨chlagenheim》有其超贊的金屬旋律及吉他部分；《Cavalcade》有幾次則十分逼近于 Primus 或 System of a Down。Greep負(fù)責(zé)了這八首新樂曲中六首的人聲部分，在薩克斯、小提琴和鍵盤等新元素的加成下，他逐步提高了自己人聲部分的戲劇性。在聆聽《Schlagenheim》時(shí)，你很容易聯(lián)想到 black midi 在某個(gè)地下室里拳打腳踢制作它的場景。如今，想象中的畫面變?yōu)?Hieronymous Bosch* 的畫作，或是一場大型演出。好似帶著一副單片眼鏡，時(shí)而模糊不清，時(shí)而清晰連貫。

“John L,” the album’s first song, is also its most broadly representative. The central theme creaks and lurches like a see-saw in need of WD-40 and Greep slurs out a portrait of a cultish political leader at the end of his rope. When the singer takes on the voice of John L himself, offering his followers a blend of nationalist fear and capitalist wish fulfillment, a grotesque vocal effect enters the mix to underscore the message’s dark familiarity: “A man is his country, your country is you/All bad is forewarned, all good will come true.” When there’s simply too much going on, the band creates powerful tension by paring things away: deconstructing their own groove in the song’s electrifying middle section, or plunging into cavernous silence between outbursts of drums and violin.

“John L”，專輯的第一首歌，也是這張專輯最廣為人知的代名詞。它的中心思想像需要潤滑油的蹺蹺板一樣嘎吱作響，遮遮掩掩；而 Greep 則含糊不清地描繪了一個(gè)逐步走向落敗盡頭，被狂熱崇拜的政治領(lǐng)袖形像。當(dāng)歌手借 John L 的聲音，為他的追隨者提供民族主義恐嚇及資本主義愿望果實(shí)的混合體時(shí)，另一種怪誕的聲樂效果混雜其中，實(shí)時(shí)強(qiáng)調(diào)著這訊息暗黑的親切感：“A man is his country, your country is you/All bad is forewarned, all good will come true.（每個(gè)人都享有他的國度，你將坐擁你的城池；一切罪惡終有先兆，一切善意都將觸及真相。）”當(dāng)有太多東西一齊發(fā)聲時(shí)，樂隊(duì)便通過沉默來營造緊迫感：在歌曲電光火石般的中段旋律進(jìn)行解構(gòu)，或者在鼓和小提琴的爆發(fā)之間突陷空洞寂寥的沉默。

In building so elaborately atop the black midi framework, Cavalcade loses a bit of Schlagenheim’s spartan urgency; there’s nothing like “Near DT, MI,” the Flint water crisis cri de c?ur that provided the debut with its most searing two-minute stretch. But the band’s willingness to indulge every impulse also leads them to wild new territory. “Slow” and “Diamond Stuff,” the two songs fronted by bassist Cameron Picton (who also led “Near DT, MI”) are among the best in the black midi catalog. The former’s manic prog-jazz pounding imagines a surprisingly fruitful middle ground between Swans and Steely Dan. The latter is eerie and spacious, transfixing without rising above a whisper.

在 black midi 如此精心打造的框架下，《Cavalcade》失去了一點(diǎn)《Schlagenheim》的緊迫感——沒有什么比 “Near DT, MI” 中面臨溺水危機(jī)的哭訴能為首張專輯帶來如此焦灼的兩分鐘時(shí)間。“Slow” 以及 “Diamond Stuff” 這兩首由貝斯手 Cameron Picton（也同是 ?“Near DT, MI” 的主唱）主唱的歌曲，也都會是這張唱片中最好的作品之一。前者狂躁的前衛(wèi)爵士樂沖擊，幻想于一個(gè)位于 Swans 和 Steely Dan 之間極富成效的中間地帶徘徊；后這是陰森而寬敞的，在僅限于耳語的情況下令人著迷。

There’s an aesthetic developing among jazz-schooled and internet-fried musicians like Louis Cole or DOMi and JD Beck, propagated on YouTube and social media more so than on proper albums, which has brought youthful new verve to wonky old virtuosity by acknowledging that there’s something a little funny about being able to play so ridiculously well. Whether intentionally or not, black midi have always had a bit of this quality—something like a joyous Are you fucking kidding me? was an appropriate reaction to those early live videos—and they bring it closer to the surface on Cavalcade. It’s there in that queasy-beautiful final cadence, and in the wink of the chord progression that underpins the verses of “Ascending Forth,” the closing song, which ascends by a fourth whenever Greep hits the titular phrase. It’s there in “Slow” and “Hogwash and Balderdash,” both of which feature variations on the same musical gag: in the middle of an intensely technical passage, the band suddenly drops out, leaving a single instrument to jitter nakedly for one measure or less before everyone barrels back in. More than any particular rock artist, it reminds me of Carl Stalling, the brilliant house composer for Looney Tunes.

像 Louis Cole、DOMi 和 JD Beck 這樣的爵士樂派兼網(wǎng)絡(luò)音樂家正在形成一種新式美學(xué)——他們音樂在 YouTube 和社交媒體上的傳播比在實(shí)際專輯中傳播的效果要好得多，他們也承認(rèn)能夠有如此精妙的技藝，同時(shí)能為古怪的老式技藝引入了年輕的新活力是件趣味橫生的事。無論是有意為之還是無意之舉，black midi 樂隊(duì)一直都有這樣的特質(zhì)——對于那些早期的現(xiàn)場視頻，他們的反應(yīng)是“你他媽是在開玩笑嗎？”——而如今在《Cavalcade》中，它們將這一特質(zhì)展現(xiàn)的淋漓盡致。它存在于那個(gè)令人難以言說的反胃美麗尾聲中，也存在于支撐 “Ascending Forth” 這首結(jié)束曲的和弦閃爍時(shí)—— Greep 每彈出一個(gè)四度上行標(biāo)題樂句。在 “Slow” 和 “Hogwash and Balderdash” 中也有相似的感覺，這兩首曲子的特點(diǎn)是在同一個(gè)音樂片段上的變化：在一個(gè)技術(shù)性很強(qiáng)的段落中，樂隊(duì)和聲突然退回幕后，讓單獨(dú)一個(gè)樂器赤裸地在場上顫動一小節(jié)或更少，然后大家再重新一齊投入演出。與其余任何特定的搖滾藝術(shù)家相比，他們讓我想起了 Looney Tunes 的杰出室內(nèi)作曲家 Carl Stalling。

When Cavalcade is at its most antic and cerebral, the “rock” part of the black midi equation becomes almost ancillary, like they could just as easily be exploring the same regions if they were free improvisers or composers for orchestra. The music’s relentless complexity, insularity, and high drama can be challenging even for a listener predisposed toward those qualities. The band seems to understand this, and they are more willing to meet you in the middle than you might think. Again and again, as a given song teeters toward lunacy, they return to primal call-and-response: one, two; a bang, then a crash; the rumble of a power chord followed by the wail of a sax. These moments are consistently among the album’s most satisfying, perhaps because of the relief they provide from an otherwise overwhelming procession of big ideas. They repeat a few times, you bang your head and catch your bearings, then the cavalcade continues.

當(dāng)《Cavalcade》正處在其最滑稽和腦洞大開的狀態(tài)時(shí)，這張唱片中的“搖滾”部分幾乎成了附屬品，就像他們是自由的即興演奏家還是管弦樂樂隊(duì)作曲家一樣，他們在這里可以很容易地探索達(dá)到相似的領(lǐng)域。音樂的復(fù)雜性、封閉性和高度戲劇性，即使對于那些已傾向于這些特質(zhì)的聽眾而言也是一種挑戰(zhàn)。black midi 樂隊(duì)似乎明白這一點(diǎn)，他們比你想象的更愿意在曲目中心地帶滿足你。一次又一次地，當(dāng)某首歌曲向著愈加瘋狂的方向偏搖時(shí)，他們便又回應(yīng)了原初的呼喚：一、二；一聲巨響、一聲猛擊；強(qiáng)音和弦的雷鳴、薩克斯的哀鳴。這些時(shí)刻一直是專輯中最令人滿足的瞬間，也許正因他們已從壓倒性的主流隊(duì)伍中脫身。他們回旋反復(fù)了數(shù)次，你敲敲自己的腦殼，重新回到前行的方向，隨后騎兵隊(duì)繼續(xù)踏上征程。

*譯者注釋：Hieronymous Bosch 是一位十五至十六世紀(jì)的荷蘭畫家。他多數(shù)的畫作多在借惡魔、半人半獸甚至是機(jī)械的形象以描繪罪惡與人類道德的沉淪。他的畫作極其復(fù)雜，具高度的原創(chuàng)性、想象力，并大量使用各式的象征符號，其中有些作品在他的時(shí)代中也非常晦澀難解。Bosch 被認(rèn)為是20世紀(jì)的超現(xiàn)實(shí)主義的啟發(fā)者之一。