Cartoon portrait of black midi
Music
Outdoor

black midi

Somerset House Summer Series with American Express

Wed 13 Jul 2022
Doors 19.30
£31.25 (includes £3.75 booking fee)

For telephone bookings call our booking line on 0343 208 1497, lines are open between 09.00 - 20.00 - Mon-Fri, 10.00-20.00 - Sat, 10.00 - 18.00 Sun and Bank Holidays

The Edmond J. Safra
Fountain Court

Regarded by many as Britain’s most exciting and challenging young rock band, black midi recently followed up on the hellacious invention and success of debut album Schlagenheim with Cavalcade, their second studio album for Rough Trade.

Drawing from such a wide and eclectic canvas of influences could be a risky strategy, but black midi’s nimble agility means rock, jazz, hip hop, electronic dance music, classical, ambient, prog and experimental noise all feed into a kaleidoscopic and thrilling sound.

It feels as though the planets aligned for the album recording session with producer John ‘Spud’ Murphy in the aptly named Hellfire Studios, and it’s clear that black midi are one of the few young bands breaking through who really own their inimitable sound. Dramatic, dynamic and utterly unafraid in its musical ambition, the band has created records filled with memorably larger than life characters and theatrical stories.

Offering up a clutch of surprising handbrake turns on each track, the listener is taken from stirring bossa sashays to Steely Dan workouts, through bristling funk to maelstroms of noise, all propelled by a berserk prog energy.

Join us as one of the most captivating UK live acts inject a sonic exclamation point into the middle of our Summer Series. You’d be crazy to miss this cavalcade of sound.

An avant-rock labyrinth of maddening intricacy, navigated without any such conventional signposts

Pitchfork
black midi, John L

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caroline
It may have taken half a decade to make their debut album, but it was worth the wait. London based eight-piece caroline sidestep most of their peers with cinematic, sweeping post-rock that builds propulsive waves of sound and volume which threatens to break open flickering, triumphant crescendos, yet seemingly exists within its own protracted timeframe.

A communal spirit courses through the veins of this cluster of musicians and indeed they’re interconnected with the London post-punk scene, despite sounding nothing like them. Signed to Rough Trade by legendary founder Geoff Travis after just a handful of gigs, the criss-crossing instrumentation and hypnotic motifs from this cacophonous octet demand to be experienced in a live setting.

caroline, Good Morning (Red)

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