Black Midi frontman Geordie Greep is striking out on his own with a debut solo album, The New Sound, due 4 October via Rough Trade Records.

Recorded half in Brazil with local session musicians “pulled together at the last minute” and half in London, the 11 new songs were produced by frequent Black Midi collaborator (and HMLTD member), Seth ‘Shank’ Evans, who also contributed on bass.

Greep describes the album’s sound as “all feel, not super relaxed, but liquid and propulsive and there is also an intense rigidity to it.” 

“The main theme of the record is desperation,” he adds, saying that the lyrics came together “really quickly.” “You don’t hear an unreliable narrator but someone who is kidding themselves that they have everything under control, but they don’t.”

Lead single “Holy, Holy” is described in a Rough Trade press release as an “increasingly febrile and furtive tale” that tells the story of “an imaginary liaison in a nightclub [that] is soundtracked by noughties indie-pop chords and bravura Latin big band arrangements – including a three-piano attack.”

Directed by London-based filmmaker Ethan Barrett, the video for "Holy, Holy" was shot at a ten-pin bowling centre in Essex. Watch it below:

Greep seems to have found the whole process of making the album quite liberating, saying:

“With recording The New Sound, it was the first time I have had no one to answer to. And with every impulse I had, I was able to completely follow it through to its conclusion. Being in a band (black midi), we often have this ‘we can do everything’ feeling, but you are also kind of limited in that approach, and sometimes it's good to do something else, to let go of things.”

Greep caused a bit of a stir last week when, during an Instagram live, he referred to Black Midi as “indefinitely over,” and fans weren’t the only ones surprised. In a now-deleted tweet, bassist Cameron Picton said that the band had “agreed not to say anything about ‘breaking up’,” and that he “was as blindsided as everyone else.”

The New Sound tracklist:

1. Blues
2. Terra
3. Holy, Holy
4. The New Sound
5. Walk Up
6. Through A War
7. Bongo Season
8. Motorbike
9. As If Waltz
10. The Magician
11. If You Are But A Dream

Earlier this year, Greep announced an ongoing residency at London’s MAP Studio Café, where he’s been playing a mix of his own songs with solo acoustic versions of black midi tracks.

Watch “The Magician” from his 14 August performance below:

Last month, Greep announced his first shows "on U.S. soil." He'll play Brooklyn's Union Pool on 10 September and Nublu in Manhattan the following day. A third and fourth show have since been announced.

Full list of tour dates:

08/21 London, UK @ MAP Studios
08/23 London, UK @ MAP Studios
08/30 Brighton Psych Fest, UK @ Concorde 2
08/31 Manchester Psych Fest, UK @ Gorilla

09/10 Brooklyn, NY @ Union Pool
09/11 Manhattan, NY @ Nublu
09/12 Queens, NY @ TV Eye
09/13 Brooklyn, NY @ Sultan Room

09/19 Reeperbahn Festival, Germany @ Knust, Hamburg
10/10 Llais Festival, Wales @ WMC, Cardiff
10/19 Isolation Festival, Budapest, Hungary
10/22 Bristol, UK @ Fleece
10/23 Falmouth, UK @ The Cornish Bank
10/25 Cambridge, UK @ Storey’s Field Centre
10/26 Liverpool, UK @ Arts Club
10/27 Glasgow, UK @ Classic Grand
10/28 Newcastle, UK @ The Cluny
10/29 Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
10/30 Nottingham, UK @ Rescue Rooms

11/01 Les Nuits Botanique, Brussels, Belgium @ Orangerie
11/09 Pitchfork Festival, London, UK @ EartH
12/03 Paris, France @ Point Éphémère
12/05 Berlin, Germany @ Lido
12/06 Amsterdam, The Netherlands @ Bitterzoet
12/07 Nijmegen, The Netherlands @ Doornroosje
12/09 Milan, Italy @ Magnolia
12/10 Düdingen, Germany @ Bad Bonn

01/17 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's
01/18 Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
01/19 Raleigh, NC @ Kings
01/21 Asheville, NC @ Eulogy
01/22 Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
01/24 Nashville, TN @ The Blue Room
01/25 St Louis, MO @ Off Broadway
01/27 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry
01/27 Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon 
01/31 Chicago, IL @ The Empty Bottle
02/01 Kalamazoo, MI @ Bell's Eccentric Cafe
02/03 Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground
02/05 Montréal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz
02/06 Brattleboro, VT @ The Stone Church
02/07 Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall

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