Rolling one cigarette after another from his home in the East Lothian Council of Scotland, Benjamin John Power is invigorated. Known to the music world as Blanck Mass, or that guy from Fuck Buttons, Power turns his device around to his backyard so I can s
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Leave it to electronica acts Blanck Mass and Mouse on Mars to offer speculative works on artificial intelligence, cyborgs and the future of humanity. Benjamin John Power, half of dance duo Fuck Buttons, records solo as Blanck Mass. His fifth release,
In Ferneaux (Sacred Bones), consists of two 20-minute pieces, âPhase Iâ and âPhase II,â that float from the type of naturalist found sounds favored by jazz artist Jeph Jerman, to wild electronic swooshes, to an apocalypse rant from a drunk San Francisco street prophet. But where his
Animated Violence Mild was a tirade on the police state, this is a sad bemused instrumental sermon addressing life after pandemic.
Blanck Mass - In Ferneaux (Album Review) Tuesday, 02 March 2021
Photo: Harrison Reid
‘Animated Violence Mild’ was the best electronic album of 2019. When that blood-and-apple-core-adorned opus was unveiled, newcomers and longtime Blanck Mass fans alike were wowed by its hybridity. Equal parts funky synth lines, metal screeches and erratic electro beats, it was a space where aggression and intellect collided head on.
But its successor ‘In Ferneaux’ could not be further from this searing sense of ardour. As opposed to the relative accessibility of ‘Animated Violence Mild’, context is key in understanding what this album seeks to achieve.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is the backdrop. Musicians are scrambling for their livelihoods in a world without gigs, their only true source of income in a streaming-dominated market.