Jabs at higher powers have never been so minimal – yet so stylistically aware – than on the new black midi number ‘Slow’. A track that lyrically tells 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. It plays out so minimally that this may not be obvious though. More like a catatonic man explaining his death from the grave. ‘Stood up shot. Between the eyes. Consolation. Slowly’. The song was written just before the lockdown and made it’s debut during black midi’s February 2020 tour where I praised it from a barrier in Newcastle.
Instrumentally this track is a menacing slow burn of a song. It has a pulsating quality that builds into a progressive fusion rock fever dream. What makes this great? Morgan Simpson firstly, who leads this track with an unusual triplet thing going on with his drum pattern. Wonderful. Then more of the king crimsoney progged out guitar licks from Geordie Greep, not complaining. Then the chorus vocals from Cameron Picton too, those that are operatic and layered, bringing a new quality to Picton’s trembling reverb heavy whisper. Yes, will take that. And to really add to this trough and peak dynamic, the music video is probably the bands finest one yet. Showing a visual set of troughs and peaks. Director and Animator Gustaf Holtenäs explains his concept below:
“The ‘Slow’ video was made to fit the oscillating dynamics of the song. Going from calm to chaos over and over again. 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.”
Myself, and many others really fell in love with black midi through a video aired through kexp on a livestream session in late 2018. Today they announce a follow up session in promotion of their bold upcoming album Cavalcade, and it is something to really celebrate with. Watch The KEXP Session Here
And if this isn’t enough, the band are announcing their tour for later this year on 4th May. The dates can be found below. Book tickets here
28/05/21 – London, Hackney Church – 2 shows – 5.45pm & 8.30pm – more info & tickets here
31/08/21 – 01/09/21 – Bristol Trinity Centre
02/09/21 Manchester O2 Ritz Manchester
03/09/21 London Wide Awake Festival
05/09/21 Birmingham The Mill
06/09/21 Glasgow QMU
09/11/21 Dublin Vicar St.
11/11/21 London Alexandra Palace Theatre
14/11/21 Bath Komedia
15/11/21 Cambridge Junction
16/11/21 Sheffield Corporation
17/11/21 Newcastle Wylarm Brewery
21/11/21 – 23/11/21 Leeds Brudenell Social Club
24/11/21 Brighton CHALK Live
25/11/21 Portsmouth New Theatre Royal
27/11/21 Paris Cabaret Sauvage
28/11/21 Rennes UBU
30/11/21 Brussels Botanique Orangerie
01/12/21 Hamburg Kampnagel
03/12/21 Oslo John Dee
04/12/21 Stockholm Slaktkyrkan
05/12/21Gothenburg Musikens Hus
06/12/21 Copenhagen Lille VEGA
08/12/21 Berlin Festsaal Kreuzberg
10/12/21 – 11/12/21 Amsterdam Paradiso Noord
12/12/21 Cologne Gebäude 9
14/12/21 Milan Magnolia
15/12/21 Zurich Mascotte
16/12/21 Lyon Les Subsistances
17/12/21 Lille Aeronef
