Fuck Buttons
Street Horrrsing
ATP Recordings
By Kevin Hakansson
It’s difficult to express just how the music of Fuck Buttons affects its listener. This experimental noise duo bypass the temptation to include any sort of vocals in their music, preferring instead an amalgamation of electronica, synthesizers, and percussion that results in an absolute wall of sound. While their music may not be consistently pleasant or discordant, driving or reserved, loud or soft, it always contains a certain energy, at least on Street Horrrsing.
Fuck Buttons’ first proper release (save 2007’s Bright Tomorrow/Little Bloody Shoulder 7”) contains a mere six tracks, but fear not; there’s plenty of content here. Five of the six clock in at over seven minutes, all of them ritalin-fueled, spaced out jams. In all actuality, Horrrsing feels like one continuous song, broken up a few times for convenience’s sake, almost feeling like a well-planned live set. The record starts out with “Sweet Love for Planet Earth,” and the duo of Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power noodle electronically for the first half of the tune, before really kicking the record into gear. A transfixing, reverberating 1-6-5 guitar progression overpowers the rest of the song, with some added garbled vocal samples to the background.
“Sweet Love” fades to black and hands the baton to “Ribs Out.” Here, Fuck Buttons show they’re not solely dedicated to instruments of the electronic persuasion. This one is the first of a couple tunes carried almost exclusively by tribal percussion, save for some appropriate animal sounds that gives it a distinct jungle feel. Those prone to acid freak-outs might want to stay away. In what proves to be a trend, “Ribs Out” gradually turns into the record’s next track. “Okay Let’s Talk About Magic” starts out with a car alarm impersonating loop, masking some more indecipherable samples. While the pedal loop remains, this one provides one of the few sections of the record that could be considered catchy, when some of the aforementioned percussion is added later, and the synth drone turns to a quaint melody.
After “Race You To My Bedroom - Spirit Rise” picks up the agony of the following track’s (“Magic”) headache inducing drone, “Bright Tomorrow” appropriately provides a ray of hope. A nightclub inspired drum and synth line is the backing for a Final Fantasy-esque melody, played on a quaint electronic piano. Not surprisingly, this one ends chaotically, but maintains the song’s initial uplifting spirit.
Fuck Buttons close their debut full-length in appropriate fashion. Another deafening drone begins “Colours Move,” but soon enough the album’s other recurring elements poke their heads as well. Some more tribal drumming and parrot noises make this one a jungle again, mixing in a goofy, video game sample. And hey, what do you know, if you listen long enough, you’ll hear some more garbled vocal samples. “Colours” is literally a recap of the material that Street Horrrsing covers; a fun, unexpected, old fashioned musical idea from a duo that rarely steps off the cutting edge.
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