Blanck Mass - Blanck Mass
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(Rock Action) UK release date: 20 June 2011
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by Chris White
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With its compelling combination of swirling, psychedelic
atmospherics and subtle, entrancing beats, London duo Fuck
Buttons' 2009 album Tarot Sport was one of the most accomplished
and distinctive electronic records of recent years. A slow burning
experience that drips gradually but insidiously into the listener's
consciousness, it stands out by drawing heavily on the experimental,
sometimes abrasive sounds of post-rock pioneers like Mogwai –
Benjamin John Power, one half of the Buttons, is a longstanding fan of
the Scots – as well as more conventional dance floor and ambient
influences.
Blanck Mass sees Power going it alone for the first time and the
end result is a self-titled debut album that's both similar and
different to Tarot Sport. The cinematic, epic scale and effective use
of sound manipulations such as echo and distortion that made such an
important contribution to the latter record are still very much in
place on Blanck Mass, but Power's solo work also takes on its own
individual direction by slowing down the pace to glacial and
dispensing with the beats entirely.
Essentially what we have here is the soundtrack to a science
fiction movie in waiting, with The BBC Radiophonic Workshop and
Vangelis's Blade Runner score (although mercifully not the
saxophones) obvious inspirations as well as the aforementioned
post-rock scene. As long, sweeping tracks like Land Disasters and
What You Know (a whopping 13 and a half minutes) glide serenely by,
you can almost see the dramatic vistas of vast lunar landscapes and
huge space ships drifting majestically towards undiscovered universes
appearing before your eyes.
While Tarot Sport's compositions often start off as understated and
minimal before the addition of layer upon layer of noise steadily
increases the tempo, Blanck Mass generally stays in the slow lane
throughout all 10 tracks. Opener Sifted Gold sets the tone with its
shimmering, otherworldly swathes of synthesiser and soft, twinkling
alien burbles before it segues almost seamlessly into Sundowner, which
sounds pretty much the same. The mood alters palpably on Chernobyl,
an appropriately stately, melancholy piece that movingly evokes
memories of the desolation this terrible tragedy caused, but Raw Deal
slips back into blissful but rather shapeless meandering; the kind of
music one typically finds on meditation CDs.
This is the pattern throughout Blanck Mass – it's all very graceful
and mellow, but only occasionally does something more dynamic and
interesting happen to jolt the listener from a state of beatific
torpor. The stark, monumental opening chords of Land Disasters are one
such example; the disjointed whale song vibes on Fuckers another. The
album ends rather like it began with closer Weakly Flier's elegant
sonic vapours wafting gently through the air, accompanied by the
distant murmurings of birdsong and trickling water.
Sat alone late at night with headphones on and looking out into a
star-filled sky beyond, there's no doubt listening to Blanck Mass
could be an enriching, almost transcendental journey. It's a
painstakingly constructed cathedral of sound, a record requiring
complete attention and concentration in order to make the most of its
charms; otherwise, it will simply float by inoffensively in the
background. What it fundamentally lacks is the underlying rhythmic
sensibility that adds an extra dimension to Fuck Buttons and gives
them the scope to develop a track from simple beginnings to a
euphoric, cacophonous conclusion. By stripping this ingredient away,
Power is left with something that's often beautiful but also strangely
static.
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