''Blanck Mass'' is the eponymous debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by British musician Benjamin John Power, under his musical project

Blanck Mass Blanck Mass is a British electronic solo project by Ivor Novello Award-winning composer Benjamin J Power. He is a founding member of Fuck Buttons. In 2022 Power announced he joined Editors as a full-time member. Career His track "Sundowner" wa ...

. It was released on 21 June 2011 by

Rock Action Records Rock Action Records is a Scottish, Glasgow-based independent record label, founded and maintained by Scottish post-rock band Mogwai. The label has showcased such diverse talents as Part Chimp, Errors, Chris Brokaw, Trout, The James Orr Complex ...

. The album was re-issued as a deluxe version through

Sacred Bones Records Sacred Bones Records is an American independent record label founded in 2007 and based in Brooklyn, New York. The label has released recordings from artists including Zola Jesus, David Lynch, John Carpenter, Blanck Mass, Crystal Stilts, Marissa ...

in 2020.

Background

''Blanck Mass'' was written, recorded and produced in Power's apartment in London over the course of 2010.

Release

On 28 April 2011, Power announced he was releasing his debut eponymous album through

Mogwai Mogwai () are a Scottish post-rock band, formed in 1995 in Glasgow. The band consists of Stuart Braithwaite (guitar, vocals), Barry Burns (guitar, piano, synthesizer, vocals), Dominic Aitchison (bass guitar), and Martin Bulloch (drums). Mogw ...

Singles

The first single "Land Disasters" was released on April 28, 2011.

Music videos

On 16 June 2011, the music video for "Icke's Struggle" was released.

Reissue

On 7 March 2020, it was announced at a

Record Store Day Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...

event that

was re-issuing ''Blanck Mass'' as a double deluxe-LP by

on 18 April 2020 in the UK, and 24 April 2020 worldwide.

Critical reception

''Blanck Mass'' was met with "generally favorable" reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 71 based on 14 reviews. Aggregate website

AnyDecentMusic? AnyDecentMusic? is a website that collates album reviews from magazines, websites, and newspapers. Primarily focused on popular music – covering rock, pop, electronic, dance, folk, country, roots, hip-hop, R&B, and rap – albums are adjudg ...

gave the release a 6.8 out of 10 based on a critical consensus of 19 reviews. In a review for ''

Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...

'', critic reviewer Adam Kivel wrote: "While it may not be as primal as '' Street Horrrsing'', or as concise as ''

Tarot Sport ''Tarot Sport'' is the second studio album by Fuck Buttons, produced by Andrew Weatherall. It was released on 14 October 2009 in the UK and on 20 October in the US. It peaked at number 79 on the UK Albums Chart. Critical reception ''Tarot Sport ...

'', Blanck Mass’s self-titled debut packs the same sort of punch, and that punch is one that goes directly to the gut." At ''

Beats Per Minute Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery ( ...

'', the album was described as "an exhibition of some of the best sonic control and sound shaping around." Chris White of ''

MusicOMH MusicOMH (stylized as musicOMH) is a London-based online music magazine which publishes independent reviews, features and interviews from across all genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B. History MusicOMH was founded and launched by ...

'' explained: "''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''. Laura Snapes of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' gave ''Blanck Mass'' two stars out of five.

Accolades

Track listing

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 2011 debut albums Blanck Mass albums Rock Action Records albums