[‘No Dice’] sounds like heaven and hell locked in an arm wrestle, jockeying for attention.”
– Stereogum
Blanck Mass – the solo electronic project of Scotland-based musician Benjamin John Power – shares the final pre-release single / video, “Love Is a Parasite,” from his forthcoming album, Animated Violence Mild, out August 16th on Sacred Bones. The video, directed by Craig Murray, reflects the track’s chaotic energy, and depicts scenes of a commercial shoot that takes an absurd turn. “I wanted to speak to Craig Murray about making the ‘…Parasite’ video as his work definitely bridges that gap between the grotesque and the beautiful that I am so keen on,” says Power. “Presenting the darker theme of global mass consumerism whilst poking fun at the ’80s and starring a Drag Queen overseeing chaos wasn’t going to be an easy task but he nailed it.”
“It was great to be asked by Ben to work on this which instantly led us to bizarrely mirrored ideas… I decided to set the film in 1983 as a nod to Cronenberg and in order to do that everything from the costumes to the shooting and post production needed to fit,” says Murray. “I have a deep nostalgia with this time period and its video formats, so to honour it we shot on a transmission feed which we glitched by plugging and unplugging the cable. I find emulated effects offensive.”
Animated Violence Mild is Power’s fourth full-length as Blanck Mass, and his most emotionally direct statement yet. The album was written throughout 2018, at Power’s studio outside of Edinburgh. These eight tracks are the diary of a year of work steeped in honing craft, self-discovery, and grief – the latter of which reared its head at the final hurdle of producing this record and created a whole separate narrative: grief, both for what Power has lost personally, but also in a global sense, for what we as a species have lost and handed over to our blood-sucking counterpart, consumerism, only to be ravaged by it.
Watch “Love Is a Parasite” Video –
https://youtu.be/pmMY35HlTAo
Stream “No Dice” –
https://youtu.be/Lsnb6GBrQP8
Stream “House vs. House” –
https://youtu.be/7DJ12asti2k
Pre-order Animated Violence Mild –https://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/products/sbr220-blanck-mass-animated-violence-mild
Blanck Mass Tour Dates:
Fri. Sept. 20 – Boston, MA @ Great Scott (w/ Helm)Sat. Sept. 21 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere (w/ Helm)
Mon. Sept. 23 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA (w/ Helm)
Tue. Sept. 24 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe (w/ Helm)
Wed. Sept. 25 – Cleveland, OH @ Mahall’s (w/ Helm)
Thu. Sept. 26 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle (w/ Helm)
Fri. Sept. 27 – Detroit, MI @ UFO (w/ Helm)
Sat. Sept. 28 – Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground (w/ Helm)
Sun. Sept. 29 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz (w/ Helm)
Tue. Oct. 1 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey (w/ Helm)
Thu. Oct. 3 – Portland, OR @ Holocene (w/ Helm)
Fri. Oct. 4 – Oakland, CA @ Starline (w/ Helm)
Sat. Oct. 5 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon (w/ Helm)
Keep your mind open.
[Love is also what you can show me by subscribing.]