Avant MIDI!

Four mind-blowing discoveries in the BLACK MIDI record collection.

MARVIN GAYE What’s Going On Motown, 1971

“It’s just 36 minutes of joy,” proclaims Greep. “This is obviously the best recording of a voice there’s been in pop music, but also there’s a lot of the really weird stuff that happens when fantastic musicians are playing, so although there are loads of wrong notes, it’s also flawless.”

THE MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA The Inner Mounting Flame

Columbia, 1971

“John McLaughlin went DI on that one – plugged his guitar straight into the mixing desk,” says Morgan excitedly. “That’s frowned on in a lot of circles, but on this album it totally works.”

ARTHUR RUSSELL World Of Echo

Upside/Rough Trade, 1986

“His idea,” Picton enthuses, “was that delay is a universe in itself… We were in New York recently and there’s an archive of his work that’s freely available in the public library. I didn’t care what else I did the whole trip – I had to go to that.”

DANNY BROWN Atrocity Exhibition Warp, 2016

“This album made me think differently about the way people use their voices on record,” says Picton. “It’s so intense, raw and real-life – he’s not holding back emotionally. He’s not screaming or anything like that; he’s just going hard.”