The New Sound

Absolutely bonkers and utterly brilliant, if black midi’s indefinite hiatus was the high price for ‘The New Sound’, then it was a price worth paying.

["The Magician" is] an astounding piece of music that has to be heard to be believed, and cements The New Sound as a triumphant success for Greep’s burgeoning solo career.

There isn’t any doubt that The New Sound will divide people – for every listener who has their mind well and truly blown, they’ll be another who derides it as self-indulgent tosh. However, you certainly won’t find another album this year that sounds so intensely creative, ambitious and packed full of ideas.

It’s an incredible, accomplished confection, kept on track by Greep’s way with a tune and the grotesquery of his ear-catching lyrics. [Nov 2024, p.36]

Greep’s love of music – from Brazilian legends Egberto Gismonti and Naná Vasconcelos to the avant-rock ventures of his former band and Brixton brethren – strikes out of the album with an incredible force.

While the album aims large, in every way imaginable, beneath its enormous sound lies the unmistakable sorrow of a man crying alone.

It’s too frantic, too kinetic, and has too many places to be, which over the course of the album makes the essential beauty of Greep’s singing and the featherlight precision of his band feel like a front they’re tiring of holding up. It’s fitting, even artistically admirable, that such strain makes The New Sound’s music an appropriate wingman for characters who struggle to maintain basic human kindness. But it sure makes for an uncomfortable conversation.

The New Sound shows itself off with a lot of bluster and impressive arrangement, but eventually reveals itself to be just as crumpled and insecure as the protagonists of its songs. At least the compositions are exquisite.

Thematic and tonal dexterity accounted for, The New Sound is undeniably an entertaining body of work which highlights Greep’s strengths as a singular songwriter and performer. However, there are instances (the bizarre final minute of ‘Walk Up’) where Greep throws too many ideas at one song, resulting in misaligned structures.

It’s not necessarily trying to be clever – more that the sheer weight of its many ideas crushes the more visceral response that its obvious instrumental swagger demands from its listener.