Tag: Blanck Mass Dumb Flesh

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Zola Jesus’ Subtle Yet Eerie Remix of Blanck Mass’ “Please”

Over the past few years, I’ve written quite a bit about Blanck Mass, the solo side project of Fuck Buttons’ Benjamin John Power, and as you may recall 2015’s Dumb Flesh was written and recorded over the course of the preceding year in several different locations — including Power’s Space Mountain Studios, a windowless attic space in Hatch End, North London and his Edinburgh home. Reportedly, frequently changing recording spaces influenced the album’s dark and sprawling compositions, which thematically focused on the inherent frailty of the human body — with the material evoking the sensation that our flesh isn’t enough to protect us from certain catastrophe. Blanck’s critically applauded, third album 2017’s World Eater was inspired by our current sociopolitical climate full of suspicion, teeming anger, despair and anxiety. And as Power has explained in interviews is that the material was meant to evoke a wild, untamed beast chewing and gnawing at civilization and the bonds that hold it together. “The title is a reference to both the inner beast inside human beings that when grouped en-masse stops us from moving forward towards good,” Power explained in press notes.

Interestingly, while on an extensive world tour to support World Eater, an idea emerged to him: that he should throw the album’s material open to other artists’ interpretation — but not with the idea of inviting renowned remixers and producers to retool the material to be more dance floor friendly; rather, Power contacted artists whose work he admired, asking them if they could imbue his work with their own sense of meaning. And with World Eater Re-Voxed, which was released digitally today, the remixers — Zola Jesus, Naked, Gazelle Twin, and M. Lamar have each added their own lyrics and vocals to a World Eater track of their choosing, giving each song a completely different and deeply personal tone and meaning. As Power explains in press notes, “The theme with this remix EP was to see how a group of other artists visualize and reassess my world sonically and more importantly here, lyrically,” Power explains. “The use of human vocals is prominent in my more recent work although I try and steer more towards an emotional language as opposed to conventional syntax, so this was an interesting exercise in interpretation.”

The slow-burning and expansive World Eater single “Please” is arguably one of Power’s more spectral and downright ambient tracks as it features a production consisting of subtle industrial clang and clatter, chopped up vocal samples, stuttering drum programming and swirling, ominous electronics.  Zola Jesus’ remix while cutting the song in half, retains most of Power’s moody and spectral production with the addition of some thumping, tribal-like beats over which the acclaimed Zola Jesus’ vocals ethereally float over. And although Zola Jesus subtly adds her touch to the song, it manages to remain hauntingly eerie, evoking the sense of humanity inching towards the precipice of annihilation, and a plaintive vulnerability. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Fuck Buttons’ Andrew Hung Releases a Primal New Single

Worcester, UK-born, Bristol UK-based electronic music artist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Andrew Hung is arguably best known for being one half of renowned electronic music duo Fuck Buttons with Benjamin John Power, an act that can trace its origins to when Hung and Power began collaborating together to create a soundtrack to a film that Hung had made but immediately after forming Hung and Power had started playing live whenever possible and soon began gathering a cult following for a sound that employed the use of a variety of instruments including Casiotone keyboards and children’s toys such as a Fisher-Price karaoke machine — and the result was a live sound that Time Out Magazine once described as an “adrenaline pumping, ear purging slab of towering, pristine noise.”

Their limited edition 7″ single “Bright Tomorrow” was released to critical praise from the likes of Drowned in Sound, Pitchfork, Mojo and Stereogum, and building upon growing buzz, Hung and Power played critically applauded live sets at 2007’s Supersonic Festival, Truck Festival and Portishead’s curated ATP Festival; in fact, after those sets, a number of media outlets named them as a Hot New artist for 2008 with outlets like The Observer calling their sound “a joyous racket of swirling atmospherics and percussive gunfire,” in an article highlighting them in a new, contemporary wave of intelligent, literate British pop music.  Since then the duo released three critically applauded full-length albums — 2008’s Street Horsing, 2009’s Tarot Sport and 2013’s Slow Tarot; however, over the past few years the duo have focused on various side projects and production work: Hung started a band Dawn Hunger with Clarie Inglis (vocals) and musician Matthew de Pulford. But he’s released a solo EP, Rave Cave and has co-produced Beth Orton’s Kidsticks. Power has released three critically applauded albums with his solo recording project Blanck Mass — 2011’s self titled debut, 2015’s Dumb Flesh and 2017’s World Eater.

Hung’s solo full-length debut Realisationship is slated for an October 6, 2017 release through Lex Records and the album’s latest single “Animal” is a tense and forceful track that finds Hung exploring a more organic, lo-fi-leaning sound featuring a gorgeous string arrangement, buzzing power chords, slashing synths, forceful electronic beats and drumming and Hung’s primal, punk rock-like howling. As Hung explains in press notes “Animal is a warning that oppression brings about consequences; we have bred fear and now we are reaping its effects. We cannot address the external without first addressing the internal.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Blanck Mass Returns with Surreal and Nightmarish Visuals for Album Track “The Rat”

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past few years, you’ve come across a handful os post featuring  Blanck Mass, the solo side project of Fuck Buttons’ Benjamin John Power. His 2015 Blanck Mass effort Dumb Flesh was written and recorded over the course of the preceding year in several different locations — Power’s Space Mountain Studios, a windowless attic space in Hatch End, North London and Power’s Edinburgh Scotland home. And reportedly, frequently changing recording spaces influenced the album’s dark and sprawling compositions, which possessed elements of tense and abrasive industrial electronica with sensual, hard-hitting, deep house, complete with punishing, tweeter and rocker beats and shimmering synths seemingly bubbling from a hot, molten iron-like surface. Thematically speaking, the material focused on the inherent frailty of the human body — with the material evoking the painful sensation that our poor, dumb flesh couldn’t do more to protect us from certain catastrophe; however, World Eater, Power’s third Blanck Mass album, released earlier this year through  Sacred Bones Records was inspired by the our current, ongoing sociopolitical climate full of teeming anger, violence, confusion, frustration, hatred and despair — and as Power has publicly mentioned, the material is meant to evoke a wild, untamed beast chewing and gnawing at civilization, compassion, good, progression and the very bonds that hold us together. As Power explains in press notes, “The title is a reference to both the inner beast inside human beings that when grouped en-masse stops us from moving forward towards good.”

Now, as you may recall, album single “Silent Treatment,” built on the concept of human civilization being mercilessly ripped apart and stomped on, and of impending doom as the song featured chopped up choral and vocal samples, abrasive, industrial clang and clatter, stuttering drum programming, twinkling arpeggio synths and enormous, room rocking boom bap-like beats — and although the song managed to possess a subtly atmospheric feel, it retained the murky and punishing feel of the material on Dumb Flesh. The album’s latest single “The Rat” continues on a similar vein as it features punishing, tweeter and woofer rocking beats cascading down on the listener paired with layers of swirling, shimmering and buzzing synths — and while being one of the more ominous songs I’ve come across this year, there’s a strangely haunting beauty at its core. 

Edited by Dan Tombs, the recently released visuals forces the viewer to stare directly into his eyes and take a surreal and nightmarish trip through some of the darker and more foreboding recesses of a fairground, stopping through dancing doll towns, merry-go-rounds and warped flashbacks of maggots and decay. As Power says of the video, “The video itself is a bit of fun and filmed on a family vacation, but somehow I feel it represents discontent within a capitalist regime and a world full of sugar-coated shit.” 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of years, you’ve likely come across several posts on Blanck Mass, the solo side project of Fuck Buttons’ Benjamin John Power. 2015’s Dumb Flesh was written and recorded over the course of a year in several different locations  — Power’s Space Mountain Studios, a windowless attic space in Hatch End, North London and Power’s Edinburgh Scotland home. Reportedly, changing recording spaces influenced the album’s dark and sprawling compositions, which frequently meshed tense and abrasive industrial electronic music with sensual, hard hitting, deep house, along with punishing, tweeter and woofer rocking beats and shimmering synths bubbling from a hot, molten iron-like surface, and as a result it gives the material brief moments of stunning beauty bursting from a murky and uncertain mix. Thematically, the material focused on the inherent flaws and frailty of the human body — in some way, the album evoked the sensation that our flesh couldn’t protect us from what feels like certain catastrophe.

 

World Eater, Power’s third Blanck Mass album is slated for a March 3, 2017 release through renowned indie electronic label Sacred Bones Records and the material on the album was inspired by a year teeming with anger, violence, confusion, frustration and despair — and in some way, it evokes a wild, untamed beast chewing and gnawing at civilization, compassion, good, and progression. As Power explains in press notes, “The title is a reference to both the inner beast inside human beings that when grouped en-masse stops us from moving forward towards good.”

 

World Eater‘s latest single “Silent Treatment” builds on the idea of civilization being chewed apart and of impending doom as sonically the song consist of chopped up chorale and vocal samples, abrasive industrial clang and clatter, stuttering drum programming, twinkling arpeggio synths and enormous boom-bap beats — and although while managing to be a subtly more atmospheric, the song retains the tense and murky feel of Dumb Flesh; in fact, the song manages to emphasize the growing sense of impending doom, confusion, and destruction that many of us have felt over the past 10-15 days. Interestingly, as Power explains of the song “‘Silent Treatment’ is about the problems that arise when we don’t communicate. We often grow apart when we don’t understand each other. Being left int he dark can lead to fear.” May this song be a visceral warning — and may it remind us of all that we have at stake.