The Cavalcade of Black Midi
Black Midi are back with their new album ‘Cavalcade' released in May via Rough Trade Records. The experimental UK band started working on Cavalcade in late 2019 after they released their debut Schlagenheim. Half of the album was written by individual members of the band at home before they brought it to one another during rehearsals. As the band notedearlier this year, guitarist/founding member Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin stepped away from the group to tend to his mental health and is not featured on Cavalcade. black midi recruited two new members to play on the record: saxophonist Kaidi Akinnibi and keyboardist Seth Evans. According to guitarist/vocalist Geordie Greep, black midi hoped to reverse the creative process from ‘Schlagenheim' by creating the songs around individual ideas rather than the whole group spontaneously coming up with the ideas together. “It’s easy to get wrapped up in the improvisation myth of divine intervention, that if a song doesn’t happen in the room naturally without it being guided by someone specifically, when we’re all just feeling the vibe, then it’s not proper and it’s not pure,” he states. “That’s kind of a dangerous thing because you end up never trying something different, or you just abandon an idea if it doesn’t work at first because you’re always waiting for that thing to arrive perfect.”
Black Midi at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn NY.
Channeling the virtuosity of 80’s Crimson with the raw energy of a punk band.
“It’s easy to get wrapped up in the improvisation myth of divine intervention, that if a song doesn’t happen in the room naturally without it being guided by someone specifically, when we’re all just feeling the vibe, then it’s not proper and it’s not pure” – Geordie Greep
The Core:
WORDS: MARIKA ZORZI
PHOTOS: A.F.CORTES