twiddlin a knob or somethin… okay so heres how it works…. Within music that originates within a digital space, what is the role of the artist on stage? Blanck Mass’ Benjamin John Power appeared to add some heavily processed vocals on several tracks but beyond this, how much spontaneity is there room for in his performance?Īs renowned EDM producer and performer Deadmau5 stated in a blog post entitled “We all hit play” (2012), it’s possibly not that much: The performance opened up after some time, with more space within more musical pieces seemingly timed alongside a comforting wash of rich colour from the lights which further dissolved the rigid monologue of the interaction. Blanck Mass opened for Slowdive (2017) with an intense barrage of percussive elements and electronic frequencies which occasionally bordered on the painful, alongside confrontational bright white lights aimed across eye level in front of a backdrop of visuals which hovered at the point of abstraction and monochrome.

The ‘hard open’ of this performance felt to have more in common with an industrial sound installation than that of a Wednesday night gig in an occasional music venue in the centre of Leeds. These two syllables were the only comprehendible words at the end of a performance seemingly rich in performative meaning and self referentiality.

Where im at deadmau5