black midi have revealed their debut LP, Schlagenheim, due June 21st via Rough Trade Records. black midi is comprised of Georgie Greep (vocals/guitar), Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin (vocals/guitar), Cameron Picton (vocals/bass), and Morgan Simpson (drums).

black midi has promised that in a few years time, the music of black midi will be unrecognizable from how it is now. “It’s a bit bold, but you’ve got to set yourself challenges, there’s no point doing the same thing over and over again,” says Greep.

Schlagenheim was recorded with Speedy Wunderground producer Dan Carey, who the band praises for his quick, unfussy approach. black midi laid down eight of the record’s nine tracks in just five days. The process was one of refining and rebuilding tracks around the initial structures. Five hour jams would sometimes yield a riff that then became a few bars of a song. As anyone who’s been lucky enough to catch black midi live over recent months will testify, black midi’s songs are slippery creatures.

When the group began, they had far more rules and regulations about what should and shouldn’t be done, which transformed into more of an “anything goes” policy of experimentation. At first, the music they were making was “an ambient, droning, noisy thing” as Greep describes it, mutating into something reminiscent of Swans or the Boredoms, before songs like “bmbmbm” and “Speedway” started to take shape.

black midi
Schlagenheim
Track list
(song titles will be revealed on release day)

Track 1
Track 2
Track 3
Track 4
Track 5
Track 6
Track 7
Track 8
Track 9

black midi
Live

Sun. May 5 – Manchester, UK @ Sounds From The Other City
Thu. May 9 – Sat. May 11 – Brighton, UK @ The Great Escape Festival
Sat. May 25 – Totnes, UK @ Sea Change
Thu. May 30 – Nimes, FR @ This Is Not A Love Song Festival
Fri. May 31 – Düdingen, CH @ Bad Bonn Kilbi
Sat. June 1 – Neustrelitz, DE @ Immergut Festival
Wed. June 5 – Thu. June 6 – Gothenberg, SE @ Garden Festival
Sat. June 8 – Sun. June 9 – Paris, FR @ Villette Sonique
Mon. June 10 – Moers, DE @ Moers Festival
Sat. June 15 – Bergen, NO @ Bergenfest
Tue. June 18 – London, UK @ EartH (Concert Hall)
Thu. June 20 – Bristol, UK @ Fiddlers
Fri. June 21 – Liverpool, UK @ Phase One
Sat. June 22 – Glasgow, UK @ Mono
Sun. June 23 – Nottingham, UK @ Contemporary Space
Fri. July 5 – Roskilde, DK @ Roskilde Festival
Fri. July 5 – Sun. July 7 – Moscow, RU @ Bolь Festival
Fri. July 12 – Madrid, ES @ Mad Cool Festival
Sun. July 14 – Nijmegen, NL @ Valkhof Festival
Thu. July 18 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
Sun. July 21 – Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
Mon. July 22 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
Tue. July 23 – Madison, WI @ The Terrace at University of Wisconsin
Fri. July 26 – Hyéres, FR @ Midi Festival
Fri. Aug. 2 – Sun. Aug. 4 – Katowice, PL @ Off Festival
Sun. Aug. 4 – Waterford, IE @ All Together Now
Thu. Aug. 8 – Sat. Aug. 10 – Rees Haldern, DE @ Haldern Pop
Sat. Aug. 10 – Oslo, NO @ Øya Festival
Fri. Aug. 16 – Viana do Castelo, PT @ Paredes de Coura
Fri. Aug. 16 – Sun. Aug. 18 – Biddinghuizen, NL @ Lowlands Festival
Sat. Aug. 24 – Gueret, DR @ Check In Festival
Fri. Aug. 29 – Sun. Sept. 1 – Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival
Thu. Sept. 5 – Tokyo, JP @ Unit
Fri. Sept. 6 – Osaka, JP @ Conpasss
Sat. Sept. 7 – Kyoto, JP @ Metro
Wed. Sept. 18 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
Thu. Sept. 19 – Paris, FR @ La Boule Noire
Sat. Sept. 21 – Bordeaux, FR @ Barbey Indie Club
Wed. Sept. 25 – Lisbon, PT @ ZBD
Wed. Oct. 2 – Zagreb, HR @ Mocvara
Thu. Oct. 3 – Bratislava, SK @ Fuga
Fri. Oct. 4 – Budapest, HU @ Durer’s (small room)
Sat. Oct. 5 – Prague, CZ @ Underdogs’
Mon. Oct. 7 – Berlin, DE @ Lido
Tue. Oct. 8 – Hamburg, DE @ Kampnagel
Wed. Oct. 9 – Cologne, DE @ Bumann & Sohn
Thu. Oct. 10 – Brussels, BE @ Beursschouwburg
Thu. Nov. 7 – Detroit, MI @ Deluxx Fluxx
Fri. Nov. 8 – Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground
Sat. Nov. 9 – Montreal, QC @ Les Foufounes Électriques
Tue. Nov. 12 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
Wed. Nov. 13 – Washington, DC @ U Street Music Hall
Fri. Nov. 15 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle (Back Room)
Sat. Nov. 16 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
Sun. Nov. 17 – Nashville, TN @ High Watt
Tue. Nov. 19 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
Wed. Nov. 20 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
Thu. Nov. 21 – San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
Sat. Nov. 23 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
Sun. Nov. 24 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile