Black Midi – Hellfire Review

Heading into Hellfire and Black Midi’s discography blind is a baptism of fire and a great one at that. Their brutal prog-rock aesthetic is equated by the scattershot explosion of theme on their album cover. To compare Black Midi to The Mothers of Invention steals some of the beauty that comes from Hellfire, the surreal bonfire of fear that gives the title track such presence in just a minute and a quarter. Sound effects clashing into one another, sharp pangs of an accordion, use of just about any instrument that was in the vicinity of the studio backing up a vocalist struck by absolute and total fear. Hellfire is intense, charmingly so.

That intensity is used in bursts though, that is not all Black Midi can do. Sugar/Tzu is a delightful representation of the jazz-rock strategy and how that can then be adapted to complete psychedelic form. Geordie Greep and Cameron Picton are in fine form as they crash through the confusion of the world around them with even more of it. This is the classic improvisational jazz mixed with concerned lyrics and pacing masterclasses that make the most of an energy the audience must cling to for dear life. Morgan Simpson needs credit for that energy too. Horribly dark and venturing into great humour throughout only works because Picton and Greep have such brilliant vocal strengths. They throw themselves to the will of their instrumentals and come through in one piece, somehow. It is as impressive as it is atmospherically moving, however brief those moments of true clarity in this soundscape explosion are.

Complexity is the core of Hellfire, which feels almost liberated by its free-flowing ferocity. As noisy as it is impressive to pull something out of the mixing on display, something the likes of Trout Mask Replica and Frank Zappa often managed. What Black Midi manages, though, is meaningful creation. An apocalyptic explosion of rhythm jazz, post-punk vocalisations and on-the-point lyrics. Hellfire blurs together, despite the consistent differences between the story-driven Sugar/Tzu and the nonsensical terrors of Welcome to Hell. Sarcasm bleeds through that track, about caring for countries and the land of oysters. There is a meaningless on the surface of these lyrics, but they claw at a need for creation and experimentation that keeps Black Midi fresh and lingering on the mind.

Black Midi is impossible to contain. Tracks like Still are hard to grasp. Their possibilities are assured, drenched in confidence and strokes of just about every genre imaginable. Funk, jazz, soul, electronic, rhythmic, spoken word, all labels and no justice for Hellfire, a piece that ascends all of that. “Listen to this…” Radio Raheem warns as The Race Is About to Begin explodes onto the scene. A definitively interesting piece that feels as though it could, out of anything at all, do with a bit more lyrical focus. The soundscape is there, all it needs now is an intensely refined and focused lyrical punch. There are hints of that throughout Hellfire, it just needs to find its footing and experiment further. Black Midi are infinitely interesting, and Hellfire feels like an inevitable notion of what is yet to come.