London post-rock cult heroes Black Midi have been posting cryptic teasers on their official website, which fans believe are glimpses of a new album.
The website features small squares of colourful abstract artwork, each believed to be a portion of a new album cover, which when clicked on play audio snippets a few seconds long.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMf8DUGn0ah/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
The audio snippets include heavily compressed vocal samples, ominous-sounding guitar feedback and brief drum tracks, ranging from one to 17 seconds in length. Different squares and audio snippets seem to appear each time the website is loaded, so fans have been constantly reloading to uncover as many as possible.
The site’s wp-content folder lists all the available audio snippets and image squares – although there doesn’t seem to be enough images at present to complete the ‘puzzle’ and reveal the album cover.
https://bmblackmidi.com/wp-content/themes/bmbmbm/audio
Fans have pointed out that the art seems to be in the same style as the artwork for their debut album, 2019’s Schlagenheim, by UK-based graphic designer David Rudnick. It’s possible the band will keep adding more audio and images to the site before an official reveal.
Black Midi already teased a snippet of upcoming music on its new TikTok account at the start of the month.
The 25-second clip features a shot of an unknown location as the audio plays in the background, consisting of a propulsive drumbeat and prominent bass and violin.
Last December, singer and guitarist Geordie Greep also hinted that new music from the band will be released at some point in 2021. At the joint Christmas fundraising gig at Brixton venue The Windmill with Black Country, New Road, Greep told the online audience to ‘look forward to hearing the two best albums of the century early next year’.
Black Midi’s second guitarist Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin was absent from several of the band’s gigs pre- and post-lockdown last year.
In January, he revealed that he’s been taking time off from the band due to mental health issues and hasn’t featured on ‘upcoming material’.
The band’s last album, The Black Midi Anthology Vol. 1: Tales of Suspense and Revenge, featuring poems read over lengthy jams, was released exclusively to Bandcamp last June.
