As his reputation suggests, former Black Midi frontman, Geordie Greep, has always had a knack for channeling noisy percussion and fuzzy guitar feedback to create a beastly sound. His jarring progressive compositions are only overshadowed by dramatic vocal delivery. Each song can be compared to some theatrical climax one would witness on a Broadway stage. Greep's voice is full of emotion and vibrancy, comparable to a Frank Zappa level of sonorous whimsy. His new work, “The New Sound,” will be his first solo album independent of Black Midi following the band’s announcement of an indefinite hiatus.
Greep announced the album alongside a release of its first single, “Holy, Holy,” on Aug. 20. The album’s name is rather contradictory as the style carries on much of what defined the Black Midi sound, yet what this new track contains is a flair for the imaginary and avant-garde which is exactly where the brilliance takes off and turns “Holy, Holy” into one of the best new rock singles in years.
The song, while containing the booming sound of Greep’s voice, is a driving, defiant piece of instrumentation. The sound is comforting while complemented by deliciously maniacal lyrics. The themes take on notions of satirized religion and the cliché chain of events associated with losing one’s mind. Greep’s words are lined up beside a wall of sound via pulsating, funky math rock. It’s comparable to the jangly flow of a Steely Dan song — one could say it is very reminiscent of songs from the records “Katy Lied” (1975) and “Gaucho” (1980) with its pleasant tempo and immersive lyric articulation.
The opening guitar riff is sharp and powerful as it leads us into the sound of Greep’s Broadway voice. Alongside his vocals are horn sounds and a wide range of percussion instruments. The song is inherently a messy ordeal but is wondrous on the ears with its breezy tempo and salsa-inspired bridges. It’s a privilege to witness a contemporary artist eager to fuse genres so ambitiously. The lyrics continue to become more rambly as the song concludes — straying from the verse-chorus structure adopted over the first three minutes. It can be viewed as slightly scatterbrained but also new and ingenious for the standards of Greep’s previous work with Black Midi.
His guitar sound is also something to write home about. It is a cross between early St. Vincent’s “Strange Mercy” (2011) and more recently Vampire Weekend’s “Only God Was Above Us” (2024). As an admirer of sharp guitar lines, I love this cross between artists as it embraces a style I was fearful wouldn’t make as strong of a return. The new Vampire Weekend album proved me wrong, and Greep seems to be carrying on this humbling prophecy for the future of experimental music.
“Holy, Holy” is a bonkers hybrid of tones and textures and meshes into something much more beautiful. This style is something so astonishing and grand in its untempered form. “The New Sound” should be an exciting experience for all lovers of funk rock music when it releases on Oct. 4.
