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Picton's Acoustic Shift: From Black Midi Chaos to Gentle Melodies
9 Apr
Summary
- Cameron Picton's new album features entirely acoustic instrumentation.
- The music moves away from Black Midi's maximalist sound to embrace melodies.
- Lyrics explore more direct themes like domesticity and fatherhood.
Cameron Picton, the bassist for art-rockers Black Midi, has launched a new musical endeavor, My New Band Believe, with an entirely acoustic debut album. This project marks a significant departure from Black Midi's characteristic dense and experimental sound, which often featured scrabbling riffs and bursts of noise.
Recorded with musicians like veteran drummer Steve Noble, the album embraces fingerpicked guitar, double bass, piano, and percussion, augmented by string arrangements. While Black Midi’s music was known for its unpredictable shifts, My New Band Believe offers a more cohesive, melodic, and gentle listening experience. Picton's lyrics also take a more direct approach, touching on themes of domestic life and fatherhood.
Despite the shift to subtlety, the songs retain an episodic and unique quality, reminiscent of Van Dyke Parks' experimental work. The album successfully contains its adventurous musical ideas within its instrumentation, resulting in a sound that is less distant and more immediately likable than Picton's previous work. It remains unbound by conventional song structures, offering a fresh take on musical expression.
