Bleep

Benjamin John Power of noise enthusiasts Fuck Buttons unleashes his latest solo recording as Blanck Mass for the always on-point Sacred Bones imprint. From the first moments of LP opener 'Loam' it's clear that this LP is something special, a backward-sliding psychedelic sludge squelches along before the raw Brainfreeze style synths saw into view with a slow focus before looming darkside trance synths overtake the piece sounding like Lorenzo Senni having a bad trip. Blanck Mass goes onto explore no-wave noise techno on early highlight 'Dead Format' showing obvious nods to his group but also honing a sound completely of his own while 'No Lite' starts off with a rumbling wall of high-octane synths buzzing before fading into a Vatican Shadow style ambient techno roller. Elsewhere there are elements of fuzzed out new beat, big room breakbeat techno smashers and tripping electronica cuts, the highlight of the LP for us has to be the clockwork roll of 'Lung' a startling five and a half minutes of shuffling beats up against an ambient backdrop straight outta a William Gibson cyberpunk novel, mixing influence of early ambient AFX with a subtle sedating, but ever rotating, drum loop that sounds as if it is on a constant rotation but we are only being given a mere glimpse of before it trails off into the unknown.