It could be a little while before Black Midi release new music. Over the weekend, singer-guitarist Geordie Greep hosted an Instagram Live session and, at one point, wrote, “Black midi was an interesting band that’s indefinitely over.”
As Stereogum notes, the British group’s singer-bassist, Cameron Picton, wrote in a since-deleted post on X, on Sunday, August 11:
We’d agreed not to say anything about ‘breaking up’ so I was as blindsided as everyone else last night but maybe in a different way. I guess sometimes all you can say is lol
Anyway! Starting sessions for my own record soon, looking forward - should be good, hopefully great!
When reached by Pitchfork, a representative for the band said, “Black Midi are on a hiatus for now while they are working on solo projects.”
The news of Black Midi’s hiatus arrives as Geordie Greep is getting ready to play North American solo shows. The concerts take place in September in New York.
Geordie Greep, co-frontman Cameron Picton, drummer Morgan Simpson, and guitarist Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin formed Black Midi in London in 2017, having met at the performing arts institution Brit School. Citing influences that ranged from Danny Brown to the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Congolese soukous, the group emerged as leaders of a burgeoning experimental rock scene in the London underground, heralded by producer Dan Carey and his Speedy Wunderground label. The quartet, like many of its peers, attracted attention for its raucous shows at the Windmill in Brixton, as much informed by art-rock hooks and post-hardcore melody as Greep and Simpson’s time cutting their teeth in church bands around London.
Black Midi released their acclaimed debut, Schlagenheim, in 2019 via Rough Trade. Produced by Carey, the record combined noise-rock heft with nuanced instrumentation and Simpson’s helter-skelter rhythms. “We want to make it danceable,” Greep told Pitchfork that year. “At the end of the day, a good melody or rhythm is as exhilarating as a 20-minute drone.” After the departure of Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin, who took a break to focus on his mental health, the trio expanded in every direction with 2021’s Cavalcade, pinballing between metal scherzos, political screeds, cabaret waltzes, and baroque-rock.
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