Black Midi are an English rock band from London, formed in 2017. The band consists of Geordie Greep, Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin, Cameron Picton and Morgan Simpson. Their name is derived from the Japanese music genre Black MIDI. Their sound has been described as experimental rock, math rock, noise rock, and post-punk. The band began on producer Dan Carey'srecord labelSpeedy Wunderground, through which they released their debut single "bmbmbm" in 2018. They released their debut studio album, Schlagenheim, which was produced by Carey, on 21 June 2019, through Rough Trade Records. It received critical acclaim, entered the top-50 of the UK Albums Chart, and was nominated for the 2019 Mercury Prize.
History
Formation and first singles (2015–2019)
Prior to the formation of the band, Geordie Greep had separate jam sessions with Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin and Morgan Simpson, all of whom were attending BRIT School.. Simpson was an accomplished drummer, winning the "Young Drummer Of The Year" award in 2014. In 2016 Greep and Kwasniewski-Kelvin enlisted Simpson to form a band, with Greep and Kelvin on guitar and vocals, and with Simpson on drums. Picton joined later, on bass guitar, to complete the line-up.. The band played their first gig at Brixton's venue 'The Windmill', in june 2017. They would go on to earn a "residence" on the venue and perform there regularly, developing their live performance skills. On 8 June 2018, the group released their debut single titled "Bmbmbm" released on producer Dan Carey's record label Speedy Wunderground. On 26 September 2018, a cassette was released featuring segments of a performance with Damo Suzuki which took place on 5 May 2018 at 'The Windmill', where by this time they were regular performers. On 9 November 2018, Black Midi performed five songs from their then untitled upcoming album, live at Kex Hostel in Reykjavik, Iceland, during the music festivalIceland Airwaves. The eccentric performance, which was recorded for the Seattle radio stationKEXP, was praised online and became popular on YouTube, exposing the band to listeners internationally. On 23 January 2019, the group released their second single, "Speedway". A 12" vinyl record was released featuring remixes by Proc Fiskal, Kwake Bass, and Blanck Mass.
''Schlagenheim'' (2019–present)
In January 2019 the group announced that they had signed to Rough Trade Records. The group released two singles on the label in March and April 2019, "Crows Perch" and "Talking Heads" respectively. On 14 May, the group announced their debut album titled Schlagenheim, which was released 21 June 2019. The album was recorded in 2018 with producer Dan Carey, who became impressed by the band at an early live show. Instead of merely recreating their live show, they chose to augment their sound with piano, accordion, synthesisers, banjo, and drum machines. "The idea was to do stuff that's impossible to do live," frontman Greep explained. "If the album and the gig are just the same, it's a bit sad." The majority of the album was recorded in just five days. At Metacritic, a website that 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". The album was later nominated for the 2019 Mercury Prize. On 5 June 2020, the band released a jam and spoken word album via Bandcamp entitled The Black Midi Anthology Vol. 1: Tales of Suspense and Revenge, consisting of four short stories read by the members of the band over jam instrumentals as well as three instrumental mixes mostly taken from the same recordings as the spoken word tracks.
Members
Current Members
Geordie Greep – vocals, guitar
Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin – vocals, guitar
Cameron Picton – vocals, bass, synths, samples
Morgan Simpson – drums
Black Midi performing at Rough Trade, London, 25th June 2019.
