black midi – 7th Level Music

black midi take it “Slow” (sort of) with their new single.

Today, black midi present a new single/video, “Slow,” from their forthcoming album, Cavalcade, out May 28th on Rough Trade. In conjunction, they announce a fall North American tour, plus a new KEXP interview and performance. A full circle moment for black midi, their first KEXP performance (live from Iceland Airwaves in 2019) is how many first experienced the band. Following lead single “John L,” “a zoomed-out optical illusion, making you question what you’re witnessing at every turn,” (Pitchfork, “Best New Track”) “Slow” is one of two Cavalcade songs fronted by bassist Cameron Picton. The music for “Slow” was written just before black midi’s February 2020 UK tour with the lyrics finalised when demos were recorded in June 2020. They tell the story of a young and idealistic revolutionary dreaming of a better world who ends up being shot in the national stadium after a coup d’état.

“The ‘Slow’ video was made to fit the oscillating dynamics of the song. Going from calm to chaos over and over again,” says director and animator Gustaf Holtenäs. “The video tells the story of a character who creates AI-generated worlds. To emphasize this, I let real AI’s generate a lot of the backgrounds in these worlds. So they are partly AI-generated, but It isn’t long before an AI could create the whole deal and create endless iterations of fantasy worlds. It can already create a random beautiful landscape painting in 1 second.”

Watch black midi’s Video for “Slow”

Cavalcade is a dynamic, hellacious, and inventive follow-up to black midi’s debut, Schlagenheim, one of 2019’s most widely-praised albums. Cavalcade scales beautiful new heights, pulling widely from a plethora of genres and influences, reaching ever upwards from an already lofty base of early achievements. black midi — Geordie Greep (guitar, primary vocals), Cameron Picton (bass, vocals), and Morgan Simpson (drums) — picture Cavalcade as a line of larger than life figures, from a cult leader fallen on hard times and an ancient corpse found in a diamond mine to legendary cabaret singer Marlene Dietrich, strolling seductively past them.
Watch New KEXP Session

Watch “John L” Video

Pre-order Cavalcade

Purchase “John L”/“Despair” 12”

black midi Tour Dates:
Mon. Oct. 4 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
Thu. Oct. 7 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre
Fri. Oct. 8 – San Diego, CA @ The Casbah
Sat. Oct. 9 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s
Mon. Oct. 11 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Cafe
Tue. Oct. 12 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall
Thu. Oct. 14 – Lakewood, OH @ Mahall’s
Fri. Oct. 15 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit
Sat. Oct. 15 – Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s
Mon. Oct. 18 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
Tue. Oct. 19 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
Thu. Oct. 21 – Baltimore, MD @ Union Brewery
Sat. Oct. 23 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle Tavern
Tue. Oct. 26 – Birmingham, AL @ Saturn
Wed. Oct. 27 – New Orleans, LA @ Republic
Fri. Oct. 29 – Austin, TX @ ??????????
Sat. Oct. 30 – Houston, TX @ The Secret Group

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Top 30 albums of 2019: #’s 30 – 26

Here we are at the end of 2019. As always, there’s too much good music released every year for anyone to hear all of it, but here are my top 30 albums of 2019 (of 60 that I reviewed) this year.

#30 – Vapors of Morphine – Lyons, Colley, Dupree Live at the Lizard Lounge 5/25/2007

This is a recording of a 2007 show that was the beginnings of what would become Vapors of Morphine. It’s a great recording of jazz, low rock, delta blues, and a bit of psychedelia and was a welcome gift for this lover of Morphine.

#29 – Black Midi – Schlagenheim

This album is difficult to describe. Is it prog-rock? Post-punk? Both? Neither? I think it’s neither. I do know that it’s a wild mix of crazy guitar riffs, epic drumming, and bizarre, frantic lyrics. It’s unlike anything you’ll hear, and I fully expect (and the band has pretty much said) that the next Black Midi album will be completely different.

#28 – BODEGA – Shiny New Model

BODEGA can pretty much do no wrong in my eyes and ears, and Shiny New Model was another sharp, witty post-punk record from these New Yorkers. BODEGA capture existential ennui, technology paranoia, and the annoyance of the daily grind better than most.

#27 – Cosmonauts – Star 69

I knew as soon as I heard the single “Seven Sisters” for the first time that Star 69 would be in the top half of this list. Sure enough, the entire album is a shoegaze wallop with their heavy wall of distorted guitars and California sunshine (intentionally mixed with a bit of smog, let’s be honest). Sharp lyrics about being tired of parties and sick of hipsters are an added bonus.

#26 – King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Fishing for Fishies

Never ones to fear experimenting with multiple genres, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard decided to make a blues record and mix it with synthwave. It works. They’re probably one of the few bands who could do it, let alone make it a concept record about environmental issues and the constant creep of more technology into our lives.

Who’s in the top 25? Come back tomorrow to find out!

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Black Midi – Schlagenheim

I was talking with a friend of mine over the summer and he asked me if I’d heard anything by this new English band called Black Midi.

“I don’t know what they’re doing, but it’s pretty cool,” he said.

That’s as good of an explanation of them and their debut album, Schlagenheim, as I can give. The band (Geordi Greep – guitar and vocals, Matt Kwasnievski-Kelvin – guitar, Cameron Picton – bass, and Morgan Simpson – drums) mixes prog-rock, math rock, shoegaze rock, kraut rock, Japanese black MIDI rock (for which they are named) and, for all I know, actual rocks to produce music that is baffling, intriguing, and mesmerizing. The band have stated in interviews that the music they’ll make in ten years will sound nothing like they’re making now. They love experimenting. I heard an interview in which one member said they’ll sometimes jam for two or three hours and only take two or three minutes of material from it. They blatantly defy any attempt to label their music, which some people might find maddening, but it somehow makes my job easier. It’s like when another friend of mine described Aqua Teen Hunger Force by saying, “Once I knew there was nothing to ‘get,’ I got it.”

The album opens with guitars pleading for their lives on “953” as a drum kit is beaten into oblivion by Simpson doing an impression of a drunken kung fu master. The lyrics, which have something to do with the wages of sin (I think) take a back seat to the chaos around them. Just to screw with your head more, “Speedway” starts off quiet and mellow (despite its title) and adds robotic vocals to further disassociate the band with the listener’s expectations.

“Reggae” is anything but reggae (although one could possibly compare it to some of The Police‘s more experimental tracks, as they loved reggae, but why bother?). It’s sharp drumming and post-punk guitars in some sort of three-way with the odd lyrics about “fresh leather shoes” and strutting in style. One can only guess that “near DT, MI” was written while the band was driving to or from there. Don’t expect it to sound like any Detroit bands (Stooges, MC5, White Stripes) because it’s more like angry punk band from Math-magic Land. You’ll understand once you hear the guitars and keys.

The band has been known to wear cowboy hats onstage, which, along with “Western,” might be hint to their secret love of country music. Lyrics about being up before daylight and unrequited love certainly qualify, but this is country music filtered through the computers used to pilot the Mars rover.

“Of Schlagenheim” has Greep singing of a woman with a hot temper while his bandmates create some kind of post-punk madness behind him (and some of Picton’s heaviest fuzz on the record). “bmbmbm” could be a Goblin track in an alternate universe. “She moves with purpose,” Green singing while a woman cackles, laughs, and / or madly babbles in the background and Picton’s bass thuds like a hammer.

“Years Ago” is like riding a rollercoaster designed by H.P. Lovecraft, and the closer (and first single), “Ducter” is a track that’s evolved from when Greep and Kwasnievski-Kelvin used to busk in train stations that blends kraut rock synths with prog-rock jams.

I realize that this review is almost worthless, and you’ll understand this realization when you hear Schlagenheim. Another friend of mine saw Black Midi at the 2019 Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago. He told me their live set was a highlight of the weekend. I told him what my friend said about them.

“I don’t think they know what they’re doing either,” he said, “but they were amazing.”

Keep your mind open.

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black midi releases new single, “Crow’s Perch,” ahead of spring and summer tour.

“Almost every song Black Midi performs unfolds in surprising ways, one riff quickly switching to another, one mellow passage blooming into caustic screams and dissonant guitars, songs constantly collapsing in on themselves and being born again.” – Stereogum, “Band To Watch”

“Black Midi are less interested in proving themselves the future of indie rock than in imagining indie rock from the future” – Pitchfork

“They were one of the most talked about groups at SXSW this year, and for good reason—Black Midi laid waste to every stage they stepped onto and damn near burned the city to the ground.” – Paste, “The 20 Best Acts We Saw at SXSW 2019”

“[black midi]’s twisted, slow-burn arrangements, noisy spasms of guitar and panicked vocals conjured visions straight out of a horror movie…” – Chicago Tribune, “12 best up-and-coming bands and artists at SXSW”

Enigmatic London-based black midi shares a caustic new single, “Crow’s Perch,” via Rough Trade Records. The accompanying video, directed and edited by Vilhjálmur Yngvi Hjálmarsson, also known as susan_creamcheese, reflects the track’s frenetic energy, juxtaposing saturated graphics and peculiar scenes with mundane images.

Since forming just over a year ago, black midi — Geordie Greep (vocals/guitar), Cameron Picton (bass/vocals), Matt Kelvin (guitar/vocals) and Morgan Simpson (drums) — have quickly cemented their reputation as one of the hottest new underground bands, following a string of sold-out UK live dates and surprise shows punctuated by constantly shifting sets and blistering musicianship. Recently, the band played their first North American live shows, were named a standout act at SXSW and sold out their first two shows in New York.

Available digitally and as a CD-R single, “Crow’s Perch” is the follow-up to black midi’s “eerily precise and austere” (Pitchfork) “Speedway” single. The “Speedway” single was accompanied by an EP of remixes by Proc Fiskal, Kwake Bass, and Blanck Mass. The 300 copies of their first-ever single, “bmbmbm,” released on Dan Carey’s label, Speedy Wunderground, sold out instantly and had to be re-pressed within the first week.

black midi will return stateside this July to play the Bowery Ballroom in New York, Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, and Minneapolis. All upcoming tour dates are below.

Watch black midi’s “Crow’s Perch” Video — https://youtu.be/A-6hI2Mnb3s

black midi Tour Dates: Sat. April 6 – Brussels, BE @ BRDCST Sat. April 20 – Rotterdam, NL @ Motel Mozaique Sun. May 5 – Manchester, UK @ Sounds From The Other City Thu. May 9 – Sat. May 11 – Brighton, UK @ The Great Escape Festival Sat. May 25 – Totnes, UK @ Sea Change Thu. May 30 – Nimes, FR @ This Is Not A Love Song Festival Fri. May 31 – Düdingen, CH @ Bad Bonn Kilbi Sat. June 1 – Neustrelitz, DE @ Immergut Festival Wed. June 5 – Thu. June 6 – Gothenburg, SE @ Garden Festival Sat. June 8 – Sun. June 9 – Paris, FR @ Villette Sonique Mon. June 10 – Moers, DE @ Moers Festival Sat. June 15 – Bergen, NO @ Bergenfest Tue. June 18 – London, UK @ EartH (Concert Hall) Thu. June 20 – Bristol, UK @ Fiddlers Fri. June 21 – Liverpool, UK @ Phase One Sat. June 22 – Glasgow, UK @ Mono Sun. June 23 – Nottingham, UK @ Contemporary Space Fri. July 5 – Roskilde, DK @ Roskilde Festival Fri. July 5 – Sun. July 7 – Moscow, RU @ Bolь Festival Fri. July 12 – Madrid, ES @ Mad Cool Festival Sun. July 14 – Nijmegen, NL @ Valkhof Festival Thu. July 18 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom Sun. July 21 – Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival Mon. July 22 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry Tue. July 23 – Madison, WI @ The Terrace at University of Wisconsin Fri. July 26 – Hyéres, FR @ Midi Festival Fri. Aug. 2 – Sun. Aug. 4 – Katowice, PL @ Off Festival Sun. Aug. 4 – Waterford, IE @ All Together Now Thu. Aug. 8 – Sat. Aug. 10 – Rees Haldern, DE @ Haldern Pop Sat. Aug. 10 – Oslo, NO @ Øya Festival Fri. Aug. 16 – Viana do Castelo, PT @ Paredes de Coura Fri. Aug. 16 – Sun. Aug. 18 – Biddinghuizen, NL @ Lowlands Festival Sat. Aug. 24 – Gueret, DR @ Check In Party Fri. Aug. 29 – Sun. Sept. 1 – Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival Thu. Sept. 19 – Paris, FR @ La Boule Noire Mon. Oct. 7 – Berlin, DE @ Lido Tue. Oct. 8 – Hamburg, DE @ Kampnagel Wed. Oct. 9 – Cologne, DE @ Bumann & Sohn

Keep your mind open.

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