New Noise, Old Prog Rock
Following the breakup of prog/noise rock band, Black Midi, Geordie Greep, the prior vocalist and guitar player started writing for his new solo album. The New Noise which was released this last October, and it is absolutely fantastic.
The opening song, Blues, is all encompassing. The hyper-fast guitar and drums immediately get you set into the world of this album, because as all of Geordie Greep’s works, such as Hellfire and Schlagenheim done by his prior band, Black Midi, are stories made in the album. Each lyric is written like slam poetry, the horns scream, almost overpowering the words in the forefront of every song. His words tackle masculinity and its dangers, Blues has a lyric mid way through, “You put your right hand under your jacket and pretend you have a gun. You put your left hand under your jacket and pretend you’re Napoleon.” This is plain commentary on masculinity, the first half featuring how men aspire to be action heroes in films, and the second half declaring how men find power in war and gruesome nature. This masculinity is a motif in all of Greep’s works, but it is particularly noticeable in this album.
The titular track, The New Noise, is honestly a misnomer as it presents itself mostly as traditional prog-rock. The New Noise is similar to Roundabout by Yes, and to any work by Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The sound akin to 70s prog is bound expertly to the sounds of Latin jazz, making a rich, beautiful song, entirely constructed of instrumentals.
Compared to Greep’s prior work in Black Midi, The New Noise is very…him. He is unrestrained in his weirdness, and in some ways it makes better music that would have never made it to Black Midi, like Holy, Holy;
however, sometimes Greep’s musicianship is very unapproachable, and Black Midi really did highlight his best aspects without showing the total absurdity that is Greep. This is saying a lot, because Black Midi is an insanely weird band.
Overall, The New Noise does a fantastic job at showing traditional prog rock and in preaching the problems of toxic masculinity, but there are many faults to the project that are not present in prior bands. I will say this, listen to prog rock, please. This genre is not talked about enough, or even mentioned by modern youth, and there is a lot of charm in the weirdness of the crunchy chords and synthetic
instrumentation. Here are some of my favorites: King Crimson, Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Jethro Tull, The Moody Blues, and of course Pink Floyd, though specifically their work before 1973’s The Dark Side of the Moon. Go out, discover new music!
