Talk about dog shit park – it’s been a weird week for math rock, and to cap it all off, last night on an Instagram story, black MIDI frontman and weirdo legend Geordie Greep unceremoniously announced that the band had been an interesting project, but was indefinitely over.
On the surface, yes, it’s painful, it always is. The band’s strange and psychedelic screeds weren’t for everyone, but frankly, they were near and dear to our hearts. Hell no did we know what Greep and Picton were on about half the time, but that was half the fun – we hung on every word the in a way we hadn’t since Mars Volta‘s Cedric Bixler-Zavala told us our smell was fecal in origin back in 2003.
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We knew something was different at the very least when we saw the debut of the Swing Boys back in April, but it’s absolutely within the range of any member of black MIDI to manage multiple side projects. And even back then, that’s kind of what we started to hope for the Cam, Geordie, and Morgan – they had been running nonstop since 2017, each of them showing off such prowess you couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to hear them individually.
It’s not a huge surprise that Greep is the first of them to step out with not just Swing Boys but recently announced solo US tour dates as well – the guy seems pretty much bursting at the seems with ideas all the time, and the facilities to not just realize them, but dictate them to willing participants.
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Morgan Simpson has had solo and ensemble gigs since Hellfire touring was completed, and in that time we’ve also heard that Cam Picton has been in pre-production phase for solo material of his own. So everyone’s making music, and really we have no reason to believe they’re not getting along or anything sensational like that, other than some disagreement on how to announce being ‘indefinitely over.’
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Picton had initially responded via Twitter or Reddit or something that they had agreed not to announce a ‘break up,’ which in a way, gives us hope. To us that could theoretically symbolize the understanding that at some point, things could start back up. Honestly, it’s not like we think they made millions of dollars off of their genius music and deserve a chance to enjoy their riches, we’re more concerned with the longevity of their mortal husks after giving so much for so damn long.
When the band first started blowing up in 2019, we waited at least a year to sit down with Schlagenheim, and once we did we regretted waiting so long. The band followed up with something subtler with 2021’s Cavalcade, where they doubled down on the pseudo-civilized sounds of the orchestral 20th century. It wasn’t as visceral as their debut, but there was a lot of growth and it was still pretty interesting, especially on songs like “Slow,” John L,” and “Diamond Stuff.” Then came 2021’s Hellfire, our designated favorite and a record that recaptured a good portion of the band’s original bloodlust while giving the band’s expanded instrumentation new context with brutal fantasies of men at war.
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After the record’s release, many people were simply taken back at the scope of what the band had managed to accomplish in the space of three albums, all released within four years. The band wasn’t just studio magic either, they were simply possessed live, often shredding faster and harder on stages than nuance may have allowed for on the past couple albums. To this day, one of our most prized physical objects is the special edition of Hellfire that came with a flexidisc recording of “953,” recorded live with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio. In fact, just because, here’s a funny ol’ blurb from Albini you may have seen back in the day indicating his excitement about the band on a message board:
“… I fucking love this band. I can’t remember who I said it to, but if they would just do a world tour with Dead Rider we could call it good and end music. Drummer is bonkers great. Singing is like the Scott Walker of Icelandic Al Johnson. Love the way no part of the band ever tells you the whole story. Makes you pay attention to everybody. Love it.”
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It is what it is. Also, The Quietus, a source closer to the band than many, received some additional communication from the band’s management about the situation, “..after a successful tour, including South American dates, they agreed to have a break and do some solo work, with the understanding the black midi door be left open.” Can you imagine the insanity of unleashing some of that material in South America? There are strong Latin influences in the DNA of Greep’s flavorful guitar chords, and for a band like bm to be shredding them to bits with their crazy context… maybe that was the perfect crescendo for their career.
Who knows what we’re even talking about. Who ever knew what bm were ever talking about. But no matter what, we consider our musical experiences, not to mention overall human experiences, far richer for having them.
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If you look at the description and comments in the video above (shout out to Felipe Joaqin Pasten Cáceres… apparently this whole thing has been on track for some time, it’s been up since December of last year. Also, Christ, is that their original guitarist up there too… amazing. Well, godspeed gentlemen.
For now, it was a great run – RIP black midi. We’ll see what the future holds.
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