I’m getting a huge “Hangin’ Tough” and NKOTB vibe from “No Dice” and I wish I could say that I have a better attention span or more diverse taste in electronic music. Maybe it’s just me but I’d prefer if someone would tell me otherwise.
Blanck Mass – the solo electronic project of Scotland-based musician Benjamin John Power – shares “No Dice” from his new album, Animated Violence Mild, out August 16th on Sacred Bones, and announces a fall North American tour.
Following the “forceful beat + vocal sample combination” [Tiny Mix Tapes] of lead single “House vs. House,” “No Dice” is led by crashing percussion and punctuated by warped vocals. “‘No Dice’ is about denial. It’s the voice in the back of your head stopping you from moving forward, the separation between your head and your heart,” says Power.
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.
Blanck Mass Tour Dates (w/ Helm):
Fri. Sept. 20 – Boston, MA @ Great Scott
Sat. Sept. 21 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere
Mon. Sept. 23 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCATue. Sept. 24 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe
Wed. Sept. 25 – Cleveland, OH @ Mahall’s
Thu. Sept. 26 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
Fri. Sept. 27 – Detroit, MI @ UFO
Sat. Sept. 28 – Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground
Sun. Sept. 29 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz
Tue. Oct. 1 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
Thu. Oct. 3 – Portland, OR @ Holocene
Fri. Oct. 4 – Oakland, CA @ Starline
Sat. Oct. 5 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
