Artist
black midi
UK experimental rock band
London, United Kingdom • 2017 – 2024
black midi is a music group from London, United Kingdom, active 2017–2024. Their discography on Gatefold includes 7 records.
7
Albums tracked
71
In collections
2017
Since
Biography
black midi was an English experimental rock band from London comprising Morgan Simpson (drums), Cameron Picton (bass/vocals), and Geordie Greep (guitar/vocals). Between 2017 and 2020, the band also included guitarist Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin. They began gaining popularity through touring across Europe, their breakthrough into the U.S. and a number of videos of live performances being posted online. In early 2019, the band released two singles along
The Arc of black midi
The pivots — what forced black midi to reinvent.
The Brixton Windmill Inception
They started as a word-of-mouth myth at the Windmill in Brixton, playing hyper-kinetic, mostly improvised post-punk sets without putting a single song online. Dan Carey captured that raw, claustrophobic energy on Schlagenheim by tracking them live to tape with minimal separation. It resulted in a twitchy, metallic noise-rock record where songs like bmbmbm rely on sheer tension and dynamic violence. You can hear the basement-club sweat in every jagged guitar scrape and erratic drum fill.
The Theatrical Avant-Prog Pivot
With Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin on hiatus, the band abandoned the four-piece punk format for Cavalcade. They hired producer John 'Spud' Murphy and expanded the lineup with Kaidi Akinnibi on sax and Seth Evans on keys. The music pivoted from wire-thin post-punk to dense, acoustic-heavy avant-prog and lounge jazz. Tracks like John L sound like a massive, terrifying chamber orchestra falling down a flight of stairs in perfect unison.
The Hellfire Cabaret
For their final statement, Hellfire, they leaned entirely into first-person narrative songwriting and military-march precision. They recorded in London with Max Goulding, turning the music into a breakneck, hyper-detailed audio play about shell-shocked soldiers and corrupt boxing promoters. The dynamic shifts are violent and exhausting, matching Greep’s rapid-fire vocal delivery. It was their most complex, theatrical work, executed just before the wheels came off the wagon entirely.
Influences
- Can — The band famously backed former Can vocalist Damo Suzuki for a legendary, completely improvised live set at the Windmill in 2018. You hear that Krautrock motorik pulse driving the rhythm section on the nine-minute track Speedway. It gave their math-rock tendencies a hypnotic, repetitive groove.
- This Heat — Geordie Greep has repeatedly cited the South London experimental legends as a primary blueprint for their harsh sonic textures. The cold, industrial dread of Deceit directly informs the screeching guitar feedback and tape-splice feel of Schlagenheim. They took the post-punk paranoia of their neighbors and updated it for a new century.
- King Crimson — The band covered 21st Century Schizoid Man during their Cavalcovers sessions, acknowledging the obvious comparison. The complex, interlocking guitar and bass runs on John L are a direct descendant of Robert Fripp's mid-70s Red era. They took the discipline of progressive rock and injected it with punk hostility.
- Talking Heads — On Cavalcovers, they tackled Love Goes to Building on Fire, showing a deep appreciation for David Byrne's anxious vocal delivery. Greep's manic, highly theatrical vocal persona on tracks like Chondromalacia Patella owes everything to Byrne's early-career nervous energy. It grounded their complex arrangements in a weirdly pop-adjacent vocal hook.
- Mahavishnu Orchestra — Drummer Morgan Simpson has cited jazz-fusion pioneer Billy Cobham as a massive influence on his heavy, polyrhythmic style. The dizzying, odd-time signature trade-offs on Sugar/Tzu emulate John McLaughlin's frantic 1970s fusion runs. It shifted their sound away from simple post-punk into legitimate virtuoso territory.
Discography
Their records — most-collected first.
Related artists
Around the web
Follow every record they touch.
Start your shelf and Gatefold tracks black midi's new pressings, tour dates, and the whole discography — automatically.
Start your shelf →Free forever. Works with 10 records or 10,000.