English math-rock connoisseurs black midi unleashed their newest single, “Slow,” ahead of their second studio album Cavalcade, out May 28 on Rough Trade. The album comes two years after their debut Schlagenheim, a Paste staff favorite, and their daring innovation of guitar music has made them one of the most exciting bands to watch.
With only a month until the release of Cavalcade, “Slow” is the band’s third song from the album, featuring twirling jazz guitars and vocals from bassist Cameron Picton. It is accompanied by an appropriately vibrant, AI-animated music video directed by Gustaf Holtenäs.
Speaking on the concept of the video, Holtenäs says:
The “Slow” video was made to fit the oscillating dynamics of the song. Going from calm to chaos over and over again. The video tells the story of a character who creates AI-generated worlds. To emphasize this, I let real AIs generate a lot of the backgrounds in these worlds. So they are partly AI-generated, but It isn’t long before an AI could create the whole deal and create endless iterations of fantasy worlds. It can already create a random beautiful landscape painting in 1 second.
In addition to the exciting news, black midi has also announced a North American tour. The month-long tour will kick off this October in California and end in Texas, with the Austin venue yet to be announced.
You can watch the stunning video for “Slow” below, find black midi’s tour slate further down and preorder Cavalcade here.
black midi Tour Dates:
October
04 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
07 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre
08 – San Diego, CA @ The Casbah
09 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s
11 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Cafe
12 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall
14 – Lakewood, OH @ Mahall’s
15 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit
15 – Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s
18 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
19 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
21 – Baltimore, MD @ Union Brewery
23 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle Tavern
26 – Birmingham, AL @ Saturn
27 – New Orleans, LA @ Republic
29 – Austin, TX @ ??????????
30 – Houston, TX @ The Secret Group
