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Mar 25, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Editors

British five-piece Editors released a new album, Violence, back in March 2018 via Play It Again Sam. Now they have announced a new, more electronic, version of the album featuring the original production work on the songs done by Blanck Mass (aka Benjamin John Power of Fuck Buttons) and shared its first single, the new song “Barricades,” via a video for the track. The album is entitled The Blanck Mass Sessions and due out on limited edition color vinyl on Record Store Day (April 13), followed by a more general release on May 3, both via Play It Again Sam. Check out the “Barricades” video below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art.

To record Violence, Editors gave Blanck Mass full creative freedom to do what he wanted with their initial recordings. Eventually the band brought in producer Leo Abrahams (Wild Beasts, Florence & The Machine, Frightened Rabbit) to find a middle ground between the original recordings and Blanck Mass’ take. Now they are releasing Blanck Mass’ version.

Editors frontman Tom Smith had this to say in a press release: “When we initially approached Ben to work with us on Violence we gave him free reign to do whatever he wanted. It seemed stupid to try and instill any boundaries or direction to him as he has such a singular, authored sound to everything he puts his hand to… so we left him to it. The results of that process being this release. A very visceral version of our album Violence.”

Hi-Sim directed the “Barricades” video and had this to say: “I was thinking about the mechanical nature of music - looping patterns of sound. This got me thinking about these amazing machines - brimming with little processes that perform precise repetitive functions. it is the imperfections, though, that bring about a warm human element, so I decided to see what would happen when they fail and the smallest of errors become catastrophic.”

Read our interview with Editors’ Tom Smith on Violence.

The Blanck Mass Sessions Tracklist:

1. Barricades
2. Cold
3. Hallelujah (So Low)
4. Violence
5. Darkness At The Door
6. Nothingness
7. Magazine
8. Counting Spooks

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