Line #8 Music/BlackMidi


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/black_midi_cred_dan_kendall_920x706.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:L-R: Geordie, Morgan, Cameron (distracted by seagull), Matt]]
3
4	[floatboxright:
5	+ Influenced By: Music/{{Can}}, Music/KingCrimson, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Music/TalkingHeads, Music/{{Slint}}, Music/{{Deerhoof}}, Music/DeathGrips, Music/DannyBrown, Creator/MarleneDietrich, Music/{{Hella}}, Music/{{Swans}}, Meredith Monk, Music/IgorStravinsky, Music/MilesDavis, Music/FrankZappa, Music/MarvinGaye, El Lebrijano, John Renbourn
6	+ Associated artists: Rosie Alena, Music/BlackCountryNewRoad, Squid, Damo Suzuki, Jerskin Fendrix, Music/{{Battles}}, Fat Tony, Injury Reserve]
7
8	black midi is a weird band from London. Though they're named after an infamously noisy genre of electronic music, they are in fact a GenreBusting rock act. Their complex sound blends elements of {{noise rock}}, {{math rock}}, {{post punk}}, {{post rock}}, {{progressive rock}}, {{jazz}} and no wave into a cohesive but undefinable whole, marked by off-kilter grooves, improvisational jamming, and frontman Geordie Greep's bizarre vocals.
9
10	The members of black midi all met each other at various jam sessions while they were attending the BRIT School in London together. They first came to wide attention in November 2018, when they performed several then untitled songs at a festival in Iceland. The set was uploaded to Website/YouTube and gained attention across the internet, building hype for their debut LP. After releasing a live album with Damo Suzuki of Music/{{Can}}, as well as two non-album singles, "Talking Heads" and "Crow's Perch", that album, called ''Schlagenheim'', was released to widespread acclaim. In 2021, they announced their second full length ''Cavalcade'', heralded by the single "John L". The tour for that album added saxophonist Kaidi Akinnibi and keyboardist Seth Evans to the band's live lineup. It released May 28th.
11
12	Work began on a third LP almost immediately, with multiple songs being debuted live. On May 9th, 2022, they announced their third full length album ''Hellfire'', and released a video for the opening track "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efmq_uXt1Rk Welcome to Hell]]". A second single, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dflSgJG4g3M "Eat Men Eat"]], dropped on June 15th, and a third, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D3TrpQ_nFo Sugar/Tzu]]" on July 12th. The full album dropped on July 15th, and again received favorable reviews across the board.
13
14	Current members:
15	* Geordie Greep - Vocals, guitar
16	* Cameron Picton - Vocals, bass, keyboards
17	* Morgan Simpson - Drums
18
19	Former members:
20	* Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin - Guitar
21
22	Touring members:
23	* Kaidi Akinnibi - Saxophone
24	* Seth Evans - Keyboard
25
26	Discography:
27	* ''damo suzuki live at the windmill brixton with 'sound carriers' black midi'' (2019, live collab with [[Music/{{Can}} Damo Suzuki]])
28	* "Crow's Perch" (2019, single)
29	* "Talking Heads" (2019, single)
30	* ''Schlagenheim'' (2019)
31	* "ded sheeran (ed sheeran send) part 1" (2020, single/shitpost)
32	* "Sweater" (2020, single, recorded in 2018 as part of ''Schlagenheim'' sessions)
33	* ''Black Midi Live in the USA'' (2020, live album)
34	* ''The Black Midi Anthology Vol. 1: Tales of Suspense and Revenge'' (2020, spoken word/jam album)
35	* "John L/Despair" (2021, single)
36	* ''Cavalcade'' (2021)
37	* "Cruising" (2021, single)
38	* "Cavalcovers" (2022, EP)
39	* ''Hellfire'' (2022)
40
41	!!She tropes with a purpose:
42	* AlbumIntroTrack: ''Cavalcade'' has one in the form of a HiddenTrack on physical releases. It runs for 91 seconds and is largely just a DroneOfDread reminiscent of the infamous THX sound effect.
43	** ''Hellfire'' has one in the form of its title track, a brief 84-second, lyric-heavy song which transitions seamlessly into the boxing announcement on "Sugar/Tzu".
44	* AlbumTitleDrop: In "Western".
45	--> ''"I spent all your cash by the time I got to Schlagenheim"''
46	** "27 Questions" has one in its outro.
47	--> ''"Freddie Frost blew up to the size of a hot air balloon / Red as all hellfire and loud as Satan's siren"''
48	* AllDrummersAreAnimals: Averted with Morgan, who is about as calculated as the rest of the band while performing.
49	* AllLowercaseLetters: Their name is typically rendered as such.
50	* AnimalMotifs: Geordie loves singing about anteaters, mentioning them in "Western" and "John L".
51	* AnimatedMusicVideo:
52	** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86NGJmUfRlM Ducter]]" has one done in deliberately low quality CG.
53	** About half of "Slow" is done in a hand drawn {{animesque}} style, while all of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efmq_uXt1Rk Welcome to Hell]]" is animated that way.
54	* {{Animesque}}: The "Jerkhead" sections of the "Slow" video, mixed with a bit of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime''. "Fantastic Knight XI" seems to be going for more of a sci-fi JRPG aesthetic similar to recent ''Final Fantasy'' games.
55	* ArtShift: Happens 3 or 4 times in the video for "Slow", which starts off with hand drawn animation, switches to monochrome CG, goes into a SensoryAbuse freakout of DerangedAnimation for a bit, and then switches to live action for the final act.
56	* AudioAdaptation: ''Tales of Suspense and Revenge'' contains readings of "A Woman's Confession" by Creator/GuyDeMaupassant, "Who is to Pay?" by Robert Tressell (an excerpt from the novel ''The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists''), "Out of Season" by Creator/ErnestHemingway, and "Hop Toad" by Creator/EdgarAllanPoe set to weird improv jams.
57	* BilingualBonus: Matt does some scatting in broken Polish on "Years Ago". According to him, he doesn't actually speak Polish, but simply wanted to pay tribute to his heritage.
58	* BlackComedy: Many of the band's narrative songs feature pitch-black humour.
59	** "John L" is about a cult leader whose followers turn on him, tear him limb from limb and feed him to ant eaters.
60	** "Sugar/Tzu" is about a boxing match, narrated from the perspective of a [[TheNapoleon pathetic, diminutive loner]] ([[EnfantTerrible possibly a child]]) who wins notoriety by shooting one of the boxers in the back during the match, thus allowing his opponent to win, becoming "the youngest executioner in tabloid memory". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D3TrpQ_nFo The music video]], which [[ConceptVideo dramatises the narrative]], features additional dark humour in the form of Sugar's wife weeping over his body before [[CrossesTheLineTwice taking a series of selfies]] over the bullet wound as he bleeds out.
61	** "Eat Men Eat" is a pulpy horror story about two men who, after losing their friends in the desert, end up at a strange mining facility where they are encouraged to consume "whiskey, onions and chilis". The food is of course poisoned. After the meal everyone who ate ends up having their stomach pumped for excess acid to be used in the production of wine. The two men subsequently escape and destroy the facility. The Captain leaps from the flames and curses the men to acid reflux for the rest of their days, which is both a hilarious and terrifying threat.
62	* BodyguardBabes: John L has "three rows of pale brunettes" to protect him from the crowd. [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe They don't work so well against anteaters, however]].
63	* BoleroEffect:
64	** "Ducter" features a very Music/{{Slint}} sounding crescendo on the chorus.
65	** "7 Eleven" uses this alongside a spoken word monologue, probably making it the band's only fully fledged PostRock song.
66	** "Bmbmbm" and "Years Ago" also use this to a lesser extent, though in the former's case it's primarily just Geordie's vocals that increase in intensity while the rest of the band carries on a plodding beat, eventually leading to a massive instrumental climax.
67	** "Diamond Stuff" slowly unfolds from a nearly inaudible intro to a lush, jazzy soundscape.
68	** "Ascending Forth" builds up over the course of its 9 minute runtime from a single acoustic guitar to a massive climax topped with a BigRockEnding.
69	* BreakingSpeech: The narrator of "Ducter" is subjected to one of these, but it apparently fails to move him ([[UnreliableNarrator or so he claims]]).
70	* CarefulWithThatAxe: All of them are capable of this, though Geordie and Cameron are the most prominent. Geordie, being [[LargeHam Geordie]], sounds like Music/YokoOno or [[WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead the Great Cornholio]] when he does it, while Cameron has a more conventional PostHardcore-style shriek.
71	* ChildProdigy: Morgan has been playing drums since he was 4, which shows through in his absolutely effortless playing.
72	* ClusterFBomb: "Eat Men Eat" ends with the antagonistic Captain screaming during his VillainousBreakdown...
73	--> "YOU FUCKING FAGGOTS AIN'T SEEN THE LAST OF ME YET!\
74	I'LL HAVE THE LAST LAUGH\
75	YOU CUNTS SOON YOU'LL SEE!"
76	* ColdHam: Geordie Greep is renowned for his absolutely insane vocals, but he remains completely stoic whenever he performs them live.
77	* ConceptAlbum: ''Hellfire'' is a full fledged example, though it's more like a series of interconnected short stories than a novel. Every song tells a story about a "hellbound" character, with some tracks such as "The Race is About to Begin" directly referring to the events of other songs on the album.
78	* ConceptVideo:
79	** "Slow" and "Welcome to Hell" both have videos that tell an apparently continuous story set in the same universe which appears to be only thematically related to the lyrics of the songs.
80	** "Eat Men Eat" is a black and white short film that actually does tell the story of the song, albeit in a rather strange way that borders on LeFilmArtistique.
81	** "Sugar/Tzu" depicts the story related in the lyrics pretty much beat-for-beat.
82	* CountryMatters: Dropped right after a ''couple'' of F bombs in "Eat Men Eat".
83	* CreditsGag: "Helicopter pilot - Helicopter".[[labelnote:Explanation]]In a case of ThrowItIn, the band included the rumbling sound from a helicopter flying overhead in the studio recording of "John L", and made sure to thank the pilot for their contribution in the packaging of the single[[/labelnote]]
84	* CreepyMonotone: Cameron's singing tends to be like this, which at times can make him sound like an English [[Music/{{Slint}} Brian [=McMahan=]]]. He's capable of some pretty hellish screams, though.
85	* {{Crossover}}: Black Midi, New Road, their collaborative project with fellow London genre benders Music/BlackCountryNewRoad.
86	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The video for "Eat Men Eat".
87	* DerangedAnimation: The CG animation in the video for "Slow" can only be described as a 3D rendering program experiencing brain death.
88	* DistinctDoubleAlbum: The first half of ''Tales of Suspense and Revenge'' is the band members reading various classic short stories over musical backing, while the second half contains the unedited instrumentals from the first half.
89	* DoubleStandard: Alluded to in "Marlene Dietrich" as a reason why the title character has become a WhiteDwarfStarlet.
90	--> ''"While a kiss on the lips may not\
91	Make a frog a prince\
92	An orgasm renders any queen a witch\
93	Metamorphosis exists!"''
94	* EarlyBirdCameo: The main riffs to "Reggae" and "Years Ago", both unwritten at the time, show up on their live jam with Damo Suzuki.
95	* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: John L's BodyguardBabes are mentioned as being this.
96	* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: About the simplest way to sum up what happens in the video for "Slow".
97	* EpicInstrumentalOpener: "953" opens with a thunderous 2 minute jam before it gives way to a quiet acoustic portion, which Geordie then begins singing over.
98	* EpicRocking:
99	** "Western" (8:08), "Of Schlagenheim" (6:24) and "Ducter" (6:42) on ''Schlagenheim''.
100	** Both tracks on their live album with Damo Suzuki are 19 minutes each.
101	** "Sweater" is 11:30, making it their longest studio track so far.
102	** ''Live in the USA'' contains a 14 minute rendition of "Ducter", and other performances have been known to stretch the song out even longer.
103	** With the exception of "Who is to Pay?" and "A Woman's Confession" (itself a hefty 11:17), every track on ''Tales of Suspense and Revenge'' is at least 15 minutes long, with the three unedited instrumentals clocking in at 24:45, 23:57, and 15:40.
104	** ''Cavalcade'' has "Diamond Stuff" (6:25) and "Ascending Forth" (9:46).
105	** ''Hellfire'' has "The Race is About to Begin" (7:15).
106	** A track they've been playing live on their 2022 tour, called "The Magician", runs about eight and a half minutes in most performances.
107	* EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether: Art school, at any rate. The members all met each other while attending the BRIT School together.
108	* EverythingIsAnInstrument: That rumbling sound around a minute into "John L" is an actual helicopter flying low over the studio in the middle of recording. The band kept it in because they liked the effect, and even went so far as to credit the pilot on the single (they're credited with "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin helicopter]]").
109	* FadingIntoTheNextSong:
110	** "Of Schlagenheim" into "bmbmbm", "Years Ago" into "Ducter" on ''Schlagenheim''.
111	** "Diamond Stuff" into "Dethroned", and "Hogwash and Balderdash" hard cutting into "Ascending Forth" on ''Cavalcade''.
112	** "Hellfire" into "Sugar/Tzu", "Half Time" into "The Race is About to Begin", "The Defence" into "27 Questions" on ''Hellfire''.
113	* FantasyForbiddingFather: "953" seems to be from the perspective of one.
114	* GenreBusting: They pull from so many different genres that "experimental rock" is about the only label that sticks.
115	* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Done to the protagonist in "Welcome to Hell".
116	--> ''"If not for you it would've been cholera, malaria, or some eastern disease\
117	Forget about it, son, a slap is all you need!"''
118	* GreenAesop: "Speedway" is a bleak depiction of urban development, while "Near DT, MI" is a furious ProtestSong against the Flint Water Crisis.
119	* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: [[spoiler: The protagonist of the live action section of "Slow" gets cut in half by a meteor from the approaching planet]].
120	* HarshVocals: Matt does some throat-shredding screams on "Years Ago".
121	* HistoryRepeats: The "Ducter" video has a theme of the rise and fall of civilizations, showing a castle evolving into a modern city, only for the city to be consumed by flood water. In turn, a large tower rises from the frozen water, only for it to collapse again at the end of the video.
122	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: "John L" is about a cult leader who gets overthrown by his own fanatical followers after driving them too far.
123	--> ''"The gargling non-song whips throng into a frenzy\
124	And the echoes of his crooning now cease to be heard\
125	No-longer pale brunettes are broken in two\
126	And thrown to the snouts of the anteater crew\
127	John L is in tatters, his soapbox usurped\
128	His torn robes adorn the tree stumps of the earth\
129	No hack with an army will last long before he\
130	Breeds men who yearn for their own bloody glory"''
131	* {{Improv}}: Most of ''Schlagenheim'' was constructed from extended jamming sessions, and it also plays an important part in their live set. Their commitment to this even extends to the vocals, as Geordie is well known for never singing a song the same way twice. They curtailed this a bit on ''Cavalcade'', having gotten bored with improv and resolving to compose more of the material in advance.
132	* IndecipherableLyrics: The vocals in "Years Ago" are so distorted it's hard to suss out more than a few individual syllables. Their collaboration with Damo Suzuki also features this as a matter of course.
133	** On "Hellfire" and especially "The Race is About to Begin", Geordie sings so fast that many of his words start to blend together.
134	* InTheStyleOf: "Talking Heads" is a tribute to, uh, Music/TalkingHeads.
135	* KnowNothingKnowItAll: The antagonist in "Ducter" is described as one.
136	--> ''"He does not view things as they are\
137	But he views them as they fit into a plan"''
138	* LeadBassist: Cameron when he does lead vocals.
139	* LeaveTheCameraRunning: "Still" contains a 3 minute [[DroneOfDread drone]] outro that consists of nothing but new age-like flutes and ambience.
140	* LifeWillKillYou: Seems to be the point of "7 Eleven".
141	* LimitedLyricsSong: "Bmbmbm" features precisely four different lyrics, all repeated interchangeably and with increasing levels of derangement: "She moves with a purpose", "What a magnificent purpose", "They find different ways to suck themselves off", and "She does not care at all".
142	* LiteraryAllusionTitle: "Diamond Stuff" is named after the novel ''We are Diamond Stuff'' by Isabel Waidner.
143	* LongestSongGoesLast: "Ascending Forth" (9:46) on ''Cavalcade''.
144	* LookBothWays: In "7-Eleven", the narrator fails to do this, with presumably tragic consequences.
145	* LoudnessWar: Unfortunately, the CD of ''Hellfire'' is squished badly; it's [=DR4=]. ''Cavalcade'' isn't much better at [=DR5=]. ''Schlagenheim'' is a more defensible [=DR7=].
146	* MadnessMantra:
147	** "Bmbmbm" is entirely this, as Geordie repeats the same four lines of lyrics in an increasingly maniacal tone until he's basically screaming gibberish.
148	** "Near DT, MI" has Cameron screaming "THERE'S LEAD IN THE WATER" repeatedly at the end.
149	** "Ducter" has "He could not break me" repeated with increasing intensity on the chorus, until it devolves into manic screaming.
150	* MickeyMousing: Employed in a few of their music videos.
151	** In the music video for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT0nSp8lUws John L]]", the strange, disjointed riff is represented by dancers doing a kind of halting step-dance. The rumbling helicopter about a minute represents waves of psychic energy coming off an obelisk.
152	** In the music video for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D3TrpQ_nFo Sugar/Tzu]]", the action of the boxers fighting is represented by the frenetic sections. A boxer ripples his pecs in time to a drum fill, and the shooting that ends the video is also punctuated by power chords.
153	** In the music video for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efmq_uXt1Rk Welcome to Hell]]", all of the action in the video is timed to the music. This includes a sequence in which the protagonist is cast into Hell by a woman he is stalking; the woman discovering his stalking is timed to a "thrash" section at the song's climax; and the final battle sequence that culminates in the death of the protagonist and his victim is timed to the song's final crescendo.
154	* MindScrew: They don't quite have WordSaladLyrics, but some of their songs almost sound like they were written by Creator/LewisCarroll, especially "Western" and "Of Schlagenheim".
155	--> ''"And a pink caterpillar with six anorexic children let me stay\
156	But I had to keep moving\
157	Through anteater town after anteater town after anteater town after anteater town..."''
158	* {{Minimalism}}: "Bmbmbm" features exactly one note and four lines of lyrics. It kicks ass anyway.
159	* MinisculeRocking: "Near DT, MI" and "Years Ago" are both under 3 minutes.
160	** ''Hellfire'' has "Hellfire" (1:24), an intro track, and "Half Time" (0:26), an interlude.
161	* MoodWhiplash: The incredibly noisy outro of "Hogwash and Balderdash" cuts right into the beautiful acoustic intro of "Ascending Forth" without warning.
162	* MotorMouth: The lyrics to "John L" are rapidly delivered in spoken word. "The Race Is About to Begin" has another impressive example.
163	* NWordPrivileges: Cam, who is gay, shouts a certain homophobic slur ''very'' loudly at the climax of "Eat Men Eat." See ClusterFBomb for details.
164	* NewSoundAlbum: ''Cavalcade'' has noticeably more influence from jazz fusion than ''Schlagenheim'' did, adding a saxophonist and keyboardist as full time band members and featuring even more complex song structures. Additionally, while ''Schlagenheim'' was largely born out of improv sessions, the band set out to write out more of the music in advance on ''Cavalcade''.
165	** ''Hellfire'' continues the jazz fusion sound of ''Cavalcade'' but at the same time adds elements of [[CreepyCircusMusic deranged circus music]] that sounds like a warped mix of experimental rock bands like Music/MrBungle and Music/{{Cardiacs}}.
166	* NightmareFace: The "Ducter" video keeps cutting to Renaissance portraits which have been digitally warped to give this effect.
167	* NoEnding: "Years Ago" abruptly cuts out to a chorus of wailing voices, which is then cut off by a crash, which then fades into "Ducter". The effect is rather [[Creator/MontyPython Python-esque]].
168	* NonIndicativeName: They do not in fact play black MIDI music. While we're on the topic, "Reggae" isn't a reggae song.
169	* PerishingAltRockVoice: Cameron, in contrast to Geordie's more chanson-esque crooning.
170	* PissTakeRap: Morgan, Cameron, and Geordie all take turns doing this on "ded sheeran".
171	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: The Captain in "Eat Men Eat" is a drunken homophobe.
172	* PrecisionFStrike:
173	** There's one in the WhamLine in "7 Eleven".
174	** "Ducter" has "Diagnose if you wish, but please first take your hands off your dick".
175	* ProtestSong: "Near DT, MI" is an atypically straightforward example for them, protesting the US government's inaction on the Flint Water Crisis.
176	* PunBasedTitle: "Ascending Forth" is a play on "Ascending fourths", a type of diatonic scale referenced repeatedly in the song.
177	* PurpleProse: Geordie's tracks can approach [[Music/KingCrimson Peter Sinfield]] levels of this at times.
178	* RedOniBlueOni: Stoic, eccentric Geordie vs. manic headbanger Matt.
179	* {{Sampling}}: "Bmbmbm" uses a sample of a woman having an emotional meltdown on ''Series/BigBrother'' as a background sound effect. When they play it live, Matt literally "plays" the sample on his guitar by queuing it up on his smartphone and then holding the speaker to his pickups.
180	* SensoryAbuse: Perhaps more prominently used in "John L" (see StopAndGo below).
181	* ShowWithinAShow: The video for "Slow" has "Jerkhead", a vaguely {{animesque}} superhero cartoon, and "Fantastic Knight XI", an apparent ''VideoGame/FinalFantasy'' pastiche with very unsettling graphics. Both are developed by a company called Deicide.
182	* SignatureStyle: There are pretty distinct differences between Geordie and Cameron's approaches to songwriting. Geordie tends to have very verbose, surreal lyrics with highly expressive vocals and elaborate, multifaceted song structures, while Cameron goes for a more minimalist approach, with cryptic bits of LoopedLyrics delivered in a creepy monotone over a steadily intensifying soundscape. To oversimpify, Geordie's songs sound more like Music/KingCrimson, while Cameron's sound more like Music/{{Slint}}.
183	* SongStyleShift: "Western" and "Of Schlagenheim" go through multiple different phases throughout their runtimes.
184	* SpokenWordInMusic: "7 Eleven" has Cameron telling a ShaggyDogStory in an exaggerated cowboy accent.
185	* ShaggyDogStory: "7 Eleven" is the story of how the narrator went to the store to get a newspaper and cigarette, ran into a blind man who told him to be careful, and then [[spoiler: got hit by a truck]].
186	* ShellShockedVeteran: "Welcome to Hell" is about Private Tristan Bongo, a young, traumatized conscript of some massive imperial war who throws himself into hedonism and debauchery while on leave to try and forget the horrors he's seen.
187	* ShutUpHannibal: "Ducter" is about a debate between the narrator and some ambiguous authority figure that concludes with one.
188	--> ''Every quote just eats itself with a different perspective\
189	He recycles points with a different tone of voice\
190	From a lack of any reaction\
191	he begins to become complacent\
192	I have the upper hand now\
193	All I need to do is speak\
194	I say, "Diagnose if you wish\
195	but please first take your hands off your dick"''
196	* SiameseTwinSongs: "Dethroned" cuts right to "Hogwash and Balderdash" with nearly no transition.
197	* SlaveMooks: In "John L" the anteaters are implied to be this to John L. They manage to overthrow him at the end of the song, however.
198	* SociopathicSoldier: The narrator of "Welcome to Hell" is outright proud of the atrocities he's committed, and spends the whole song encouraging the ShellShockedVeteran protagonist to get over his PTSD and revel in the life of a mercenary.
199	--> ''"We did it all, we seen it all\
200	And worse, much worse, son\
201	The massacres of ages\
202	[[ButForMeItWasTuesday Too many to recall]]"''
203	* StepfordSuburbia: "Speedway" is a song advertising a new suburban development, but the CreepyMonotone vocals and minor chords on the refrain give it a distinctly dystopian vibe.
204	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Matt does the screams on "Years Ago" and Morgan raps a bit on "ded sheeran".
205	* StopAndGo: Used to great effect in "John L", where the verses are punctuated by bursts of abrupt silence that ratchet the tension up further each time they happen.
206	* StylisticSuck:
207	** The video for "Ducter" is made to look like a cheap browser game from the TurnOfTheMillennium.
208	** "ded sheeran" takes this to ''Series/TimAndEricAwesomeShowGreatJob'' levels. It's basically the band members autotuning themselves singing and rapping random nonsense over a series of glitchy synth beats.
209	* SurrealMusicVideo: The only kind they do.
210	** Between its deliberately low quality visuals and ''Film/{{Koyaanisqatsi}}''-esque imagery, "Ducter" definitely qualifies.
211	** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT0nSp8lUws John L]]" features a bunch of dancers in red colored lycra suits paying homage to a cyclopean obelisk being against the backdrop of a CG landscape that looks like an Creator/AdultSwim remake of ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''. That's about as straightforward as we can put it.
212	** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tJ4ISRpl-Q Slow]]" is easily the weirdest one yet, combining traditional animation with uncanny CG and live action footage to tell a bizarre tale about a planet colliding with a dystopian future Earth.
213	** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D3TrpQ_nFo Sugar/Tzu]]" is a fairly literal interpretation of the song's story (a boxing match in which the child narrator shoots one of the boxers) but with very Lynchian touches, including a talking monkey as the announcer, faceless audience members, and a referee with a VR headset twisting and contorting around like a creature from ''Film/JacobsLadder''.
214	** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efmq_uXt1Rk Welcome to Hell]]" expands on the story of a character from the Slow video mentioned above. Eagle-eyed viewers have managed to decode the strange hieroglyphics seen throughout the video into English phrases that give some insight into the plot. In essence, it is the story of a man who becomes infatuated with a beautiful woman and begins stalking her. The man is depicted as a misogynist loser who hangs out in "incel bars". The woman discovers what he has been doing, and sends him to Hell. The man emerges from Hell, becoming the embittered character we see at the start of "Slow". He then returns to confront the woman, and she cuts him in two, but not before he kills her in turn, unleashing an angel of death that devours them both and destroys the world. The video ends on text that reads "'''YOU RUINED IT FOR EVERYONE'''".
215	* TakeThat: "ded sheeran" contains a brutal one to Music/EdSheeran.
216	--> '''Morgan:''' Hahaha, my name's Ed Sheeran, look at me with my jeans and white t-shirt and acoustic guitar plugged into my loop pedal! Oh my GOD, you greedy piece of shit man! FUCK YOU MAN! How are you gonna do that? You're just taking everyone's money! Remember that time at The Windmill when you took my shit, you took my drum sticks? Yeah, '''FUCK YOU!'''
217	** The video for "Slow" features a website called "Faux News" with a layout that rather resembles the website for ''The Guardian''.
218	* TextlessAlbumCover: ''Schlagenheim'' just has a modernist sculpture that resembles a bunch of buildings, machines, parts of vehicles, and complex geometric shapes melted together with a green square in the top left corner. It's actually quite accurate to the sound of the record. "Sweater" features a similar sculpture done by the same artist.
219	* TrueCompanions: They all seem to be very good friends, and have said in interviews that their sound is so elastic as a simple result of trying to accommodate each member's diverse talents and influences.
220	* UncommonTime: Used in almost every song.
221	* VillainSong: ''Hellfire'' consists mostly of this:
222	** "Sugar/Tzu" has the narrator proudly recounting how he murdered a man to get famous.
223	** "Welcome to Hell" is sung from the perspective of a SociopathicSoldier encouraging one of his comrades to completely abandon his conscience and embrace the depravities of war. Near the end of the song he gets so fed up with the other man's symptoms of shell shock that he threatens to kill him before discharging him from the military.
224	** The narrator of "Dangerous Liaisons" accepts a contract to murder a man from a gangster who is later revealed to be the devil himself.
225	** "The Defence" is about a pimp defending his business as no more immoral than banking and trying to justify himself by saying that his prostitutes wouldn't amount to much anyway.
226	* VocalTagTeam: Geordie has the lion's share of lead vocals, but Cameron sings lead on a few songs as well. "Talking Heads" has them both trading off verses.
227	* WalkingShirtlessScene: Like many rock drummers, Morgan tends to shed his shirt pretty early on in their shows.
228	* WarIsHell: "Welcome to Hell" contains some pretty gnarly descriptions of men being blown apart and civilians being forced into lives of degradation as a result of their country being invaded.
229	--> ''"[[AnArmAndALeg Limbs rendered birds by the speed they flew off]]\
230	[[LudicrousGibs A soup nothingness that once was your best friend]]\
231	Motherless children, temptress widows\
232	The wild, the useless, the dead, the untameable!"''
233	* WhamLine: "So I got to the curb and got out my keys, the RV was just on the other side. I began to cross. I pushed the button to unlock it. And as I reached for the door, [[spoiler: a great big fuckoff truck went straight through me]]."
234	* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Geordie's accent is extremely idiosyncratic and difficult to place, with some describing it as either sounding somewhat Irish, South African, or French. Apparently, it's a very specific London dialect. Note that he doesn't just put on that voice when he sings, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka3LGNsajlU it's what he actually sounds like]].
235	* WhiteDwarfStarlet: The titular character in "Marlene Dietrich" is presented as being past her prime and facing derision from her audience but still managing to bring to joy to the narrator.
236	* AWildRapperAppears: American rapper Fat Tony guests on two tracks on ''Live in the USA'', spitting over "Jam 1" and "Bmbmbm".
237	* WordSaladLyrics: "Years Ago" is just a series of unfinished sentences and random scatting, based on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_4XmY0CXxQ&feature=emb_title a video]] of an Alabama rapper trying and failing to freestyle on live TV. "Bmbmbm" also arguably qualifies; while the concepts expressed are basically coherent, the method of delivery more resembles an increasingly manic series of compulsive thoughts, with no actual meaning behind the words.

Context Music / BlackMidi