black midi: Schlagenheim [ROUGH TRADE]

Why you'll love it

This 180g gatefold edition comes with a download code. Schlagenheim was shortlisted for the 2019 Mercury Prize and landed on year-end best-of lists across the board.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Download card included
• Poster included
• Stereo mix

About the album

black midi built their reputation the old-fashioned way: playing the Windmill in Brixton until people started talking. The four met at the BRIT School in Croydon, a KEXP session filmed in Reykjavik spread the word online, and by early 2019 they'd signed to Rough Trade while barely saying a word to the press.

Producer Dan Carey recorded the album at his Speedy Wunderground studio in five days in November 2018, shaping hours-long jams into tight, twisting songs and dressing them in piano, accordion, synthesizers and drum machines. "953" lurches from riff to riff, "Speedway" ticks like a machine, "Near DT,MI" explodes, and "Ducter" builds into a monster. Morgan Simpson's drumming is a marvel throughout. Eight of the nine songs were finished in those five days, and the band have stressed it was carefully assembled rather than improvised on the spot.

The title is a made-up word, set in an imaginary world Geordie Greep invented. He originally wanted to call it Hellfire, then very sensibly saved the name for the third album. Forward planning, in a math rock band; we're as surprised as you are.

Also at Kops: more black midi on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Rough Trade (cat# RT0073LP), the 2019 album.