Rhizome's "Black MIDI" Playlist Makes Black Friday More Intellectual

Rhizome has been sharing some amazing guest-curated sound art and music mixes this past fall in the publication's "Wavelength" series. Today, the site published a very black mix for a very Black Friday called "Troubled Light: Listening Through Black MIDI."

Inspired by an article for TATE Etc. entitled "Black Moods" by Gabriel Ramin Schor, Rhizome has made a Black MIDI mix based on a device used in the 40s that created hyper-complicated compositions on pianos before the MIDI machine was a commonplace technology.

The mid-20th century device, now nick named "black MIDI," allowed composers to punch holes in player piano rolls and dictate composition that human hands could never create--thousands of thousands of notes layered on top of one another. The sheet notes look nearly solid black due to how many notes are included, similar to if a video game soundtrack's MIDI-based composition was translated into musical notation.

Take a listen to the Rhizome playlist above that characterizes a somewhat unofficial history of the MIDI player, and then head over to the organization's site to read more on the Black MIDI's crazy history. The playlist has song track descriptions, here, as well.

Hats off to Rhizome for making Black Friday more intellectually-stimulating while still celebrating the day.

@zachsokol