BLANCK MASS / SURPRISE ATTACKS Promotions No.42
with: ROSEBUD + FERRIC LUX
Friday 8 April 2016
8:00 pm - 11:30 pm
£10 in advance
BLANCK MASS / ROSEBUD / FERRIC LUX – SURPRISE ATTACKS No.42
Doors 8pm
£10
Ticket link: http://
* TICKET PURCHASE STRONGLY ADVISED FOR THIS EVENT *
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BLANCK MASS
Blanck Mass is the solo project of Benjamin John Power. The Fuck Buttons musician has been making music under the moniker since 2010 and his second album,
Dumb Flesh, will be released in May 2015.
Ben’s self-titled debut was released on Mogwai’s Rock Action in 2011. Described by Fact Magazine as “simultaneously soothing and sweepingly grandiose, esoteric and surprisingly accessible”, the album was an elegant, introspective departure from the stadium electronica he had become known for. In 2012, Sundowner – the second track from the album – soundtracked the London Olympics Opening Ceremony. The song was chosen by Underworld’s Rick Smith and performed by London’s Symphony Orchestra to 900 million people worldwide.
2012’s EP White Math / Polymorph, released on Software (Mexican Summer), was a clear proclamation from Ben that Blanck Mass would not be synonymous with ambient drone. The track Hellion Earth followed in 2013 in a similar vein. More techno than anything else, the three tracks were a demonstration of Ben’s flexibility as an artist.
Beyond his personal work, Ben has taken his collaborations cross media. He supported Sigur Ros on their colossal 2013 world tour, worked with visual artist Alex Turvey, provided remixes for Mogwai’s Music Industry 3. Fitness Industry 1. and John Carpenter’s Lost Themes and contributed to Ben Wheatley’s 2013 film A Field in England. At the end of 2014, he toured with Jon Hopkins and has since been putting the final touches to Dumb Flesh.
“Dumb Flesh” was solely written, produced and recorded by Benjamin in a number of different locations over the space of a year. It began life in Fuck Buttons’ ‘Space Mountain’ studio, moved into a windowless attic space in Hatch End, North London, then was finished up at Ben’s new home in Edinburgh. The geographical spread of the sessions is reflected in the shifting landscapes of the tracks and the ever-changing sound-palette used to realise Dumb Flesh as an expansive but coherent body of work.
As a work of art, Dumb Flesh is a comment on the flaws of the human form in its current evolutionary state. This theme in effect wrote itself when, during the working process, Benjamin was crippled for two months and thus the frailty of the human body naturally became a resonant and inescapable part of the album’s gestation. “With the spine not effectively developed, inefficient for us to walk around on two feet, we are at the mercy of our genetic heritage everyday. No matter how intelligent we are compared to other lifeforms, we’re still made up of the same building blocks and things can go very wrong”. In particular, the track ‘Dead Format’ reflects upon this reality, whilst ‘Atrophies’ and ‘Detritus’ acknowledge the organic decay we will all inevitably succumb to.
The album went through myriad stages of completion before arriving at this definitive version. Benjamin elaborates “There must have been at least three occasions where I re-produced the whole thing, replacing instrumentation and experimenting with new machines until I was happy with where the evolution of the project had arrived. That’s the difference between the subject matter ofDumb Flesh and the process of creating it; an end point can be reached. Saying that, I don’t like to stick around in one place too long so we’ll see where this leads to next.”
“Listening to Power’s music is like being knocked for six by a groundswell.” Fact Magazine
“Power has proven to be a skilled and deeply intuitive editor.” Pitchfork
“I’d never heard anything that sounded so euphoric. It was one of those moments where we put the music on the film and we knew we could never replace it. As far as I’m concerned, the whole film hangs on this piece of music.” Ben Wheatley, film director
WEBSITE:
http://blanckmass.co.uk/
SOUNDCLOUD:
https://soundcloud.com/
BANDCAMP:
https://
FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/
DEAD FORMAT VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/
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ROSEBUD
Worcester’s Rosebud have been described as a three-headed electronic beast howling at the rising indifferent Sun.
An escaped noise chimpanzee trying to make sense of acid rhythms, beats and glitches.
After a string of chaotic and incendiary live shows, Rosebud are ready for the next phase of their existence: to start work on their first physical release and temper their sound like a razor sharp spear tip aimed squarely at the heart of the DIY & Electronic Noise genres.
Call it loosely structured heavyweight dark electronica. Call it a rosebud flowering on a tree of woe, its’ roots fed on industrial, dub and punk. Call it what you will. There will be no pity for the herd.
FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/
LIVE PERFORMANCE AUDIO:
https://www.mixcloud.com/
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FERRIC LUX
Ferric Lux creates an audio visual feast comprising of ritualistic blackened techno investigating the dark sacrificial and hallucinogenic history of dance music through hazy analogue tape blur and primitive orchestrations. Hypnotic and mesmerising, this is one act not to be missed.
BANDCAMP:
http://
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Doors 8pm
£10 entry
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