Turn Up The Volume looks back at his favourite concerts of 2019…
black midi – Beurschouwburg, Brussels – 10 October 2019
Here’s the original review…
If you went to this gig without ever hearing this electrical juvenile London quartet called black midi I guess your unsuspecting ears would have been impressed as never before. These adventurous youngsters sound like an experimental post-punk turbine producing ferocious Black Sabbath drones resonating actually like bombastic prog-rock firework with ever-changing, manic Frank Zappa-esque twists and turns. Yep, demonic and hypnotic 21st Century disturbance with the crushing impact of a deranged steamroller.
Their repetitive build up/break down noise pattern goes sometimes faster than your aural reception and messed-up mind can actually handle. And at times the four members – two guitarists, a bassist and an octopus drummer – seem to play each a different song as if this was a free jazz-rock gathering while main vocalist Geordie Greep‘s haunting Scott Walker like vocals tried to give the uninterrupted cacophonous havoc a voice now and then. Arresting!
Crowd pleasers 953, Near DT, MI, speedway and bmbmbm, all standout highlights of their astonishing debut LP Schlagenheim worked perfectly to keep the audience buzzing. But some new pieces were thrown in and caused both puzzlement and bewilderment among the spectators as rhythms and dynamics went relentlessly forth and back and vice versa without really going somehwere leaving a what the bloody fuck is going on here feel.
Seventy-minutes of non-stop (no communication with the audience whatsoever, even
no ‘hello‘ nor ‘goodbye‘) freakish electricity was a bit too long, but be assured the hype
is for real. These innovative and imaginative noise misfits learned a lot of mind-boggling experimentalism from the past and they turned their impressions into something truly special for today and for the future. Don’t forget, they have only started!
This footage will give you a firm taste of their perplexing power…
black midi: Facebook
Here’s their manic debut LP ‘SCHLAGENHEIM‘ in full…
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(concert pics by Turn Up The Volume!)