Bleep

On paper, Ted Kaczynski and Blanck Mass would be an ironic pairing if they weren’t so perfectly unsettling together. Kaczynski, known more readily in America as the Unabomber for committing over a dozen successful bombings across three decades before his arrest in 1995, began his reign of terror out of a primalist hatred of industrialisation and technology. Blanck Mass, the long-standing solo project of Benjamin John Power, started as maximalist sonic behemoths before enveloping influences of industrial music and various intoxicating strains of electronica with the transfixing horror of a Cronenberg monster. For Tony Stone’s upcoming biopic on Ted K, Power shapeshifts again to deliver a soundtrack fit for one of the world’s most notorious domestic terrorists.

Ted K marks the musician’s third foray in film scoring and Power is noticeably more restrained as a composer without completely removing all traces of Blanck Mass. Power’s instantly recognisable visceral howl doesn’t appear until the second-to-last track ‘Skidders,’ but he still makes his presence felt early on with ‘Montana,’ the film’s main score that pairs a brassy synth bass with what sounds like a chorus of vikings chanting. As it unfolds, the soundtrack acts as an inadvertent bridge between Blanck Mass’ ambient origins and more caustic later work, taking its time to develop worlds of terror instead of bludgeoning listeners from the jump. Moments like “Noise Destroys Something Wonderful” and “Desecration” are some of Power’s most stunning compositions to date, even with the knowledge that it soundtracks a man committing lethal acts of terror.

Dichotomies aside, Blanck Mass proves repeatedly that he’s the right composer to capture Kaczynski’s story. An affecting masterpiece in lineage with great works from Mika Vainio, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Franck Vigroux and Alva Noto.