Village Underground, Shoreditch
“Are you ready to rumble?!”
The homegrown London act return for a scintillatingly unorthodox set as part of their 4-night residency here - tonight reciting their breakout debut LP, Schlagenheim.
It would be hard to pinpoint many other acts than Black Midi which better encapsulate the progressive rock scene in London's recent tenure. Since their forceful set at the turn of 2019, which galvanised support before the release of their debut, Schlagenheim, the ever-evolving line-up to Black Midi has seen them progress leaps and bounds, garnering a heap of critical appraise.
Returning to home soil is never a straightforward occasion, however. Performing a 4-night residency at Shoreditch’s Village Underground (each accounting for a different LP rendition), tonight would provide a multitude of theoretical stumbling blocks: What would their line-up look like? How much of their acclaimed album will they perform? Will they / won’t they play their acclaimed breakout single, ‘bmbmbm’?
The latter would have to wait, as for now the explosive inception to Schlagenheim played out through ‘953’s tenacious wall of monolithic guitar chugging, jittery drum patterns and frontman Geordie Greep’s dissonantly twangy vocals. But the true testament to this act’s prowess came at the unexpected re-fixings of tempos within this track - forever keeping the crowd on their toes with the unexpected, unorthodox, unwavering experimentalism from this 4-piece.
As bassist Cameron Picton took the vocal reigns on ‘Speedway’, an unrelenting temerity struck a chord with such Krautrock acts at the peak of their powers: namely Can, Neu or Suicide. The dystopian backdrop cried from Picton’s deadened delivery, “new city, old buildings”, transcended neatly into ‘Near DT, MI’, offering another standout track which has since aged like a fine wine, as the crowd revelled in its drowning struggle, “I’m drained by the water are you losing your mind?”.
With an immaculate soundscape, expertly capturing each intricate layer at play tonight, as well as a well-synchronised lighting display, Black Midi proved an undeniable force to this homecoming show - quantified more so by the departure of this LP's primary guitarist, Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin. For the act showed little sign of relent or remorse: bolstered by Seth Evans’ keyboarding trickles, helping to soften the blow of their set’s midsection, the act's progressive nature continued to work wonders and reason their expansive fanbase, which is now well beyond London's borders.
Perhaps the greatest highlight came within the final act: an impromptu interruption from an audience member impersonating Greep’s opening line in the highly-anticipated ‘bmbmbm’ -- curtly retorted by the man on-stage, “No-one can do it better, only I fucking can.” In this moment alone, the full force of Black Midi was felt: an unapologetic, evolving, progressive monolith devoted to their own rule book.
8/10
Black Midi's latest LP, Hellfire, is out now via Rough Trade Records and can be found below.
Photo is courtesy of Sophie Jouvenaar whose work can be found here.
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