Fuck Buttons
Slow Focus
This has been a good year for noise - two new Merzbow albums, and now one from the Bristol noise duo that the Radio Times refers to as F*** Buttons. Ever since my sister introduced me to this band's music, I've been a fan of theirs, so I had high hopes for this new release.
One thing's for sure - this band are not making three-minute pop shite for the ADD generation. Of the seven tracks available on Youtube, four are over seven minutes long. Nor have they softened their approach - Slow Focus is as noisy and harsh as any of their work.
Ten-minute epic Stalker drags a little to begin with, but soon gets into gear, pulling the listener into an ascendant, glittering soundscape reminiscent of the sadly deceased Part Chimp (venerandam). It's noise, but of the most uplifting kind, so sweet and optimistic that at times you almost forget it's noise at all. Sentients begins with Scott Walker-esque clattering, which soon establishes a lurching rhythm that sounds a little like Tom Waits circa Mule Variations. the off-kilter beat is soon joined by odd, boinging electronic pulses. What with the unusual time signature and ugly sound effects, this track verges on dubstep, and there is a strangely urban vibe to it - it's a song that sounds like it could be the soundtrack to a nighttime walk through Stockwell - it's paranoid, claustrophobic music, more frightened than frightening. In many ways, though, it resembles a conventional dance track - it's danceable, certainly, and there are moments when I can imagine it playing in a club (albeit no club that I've ever been to). Brainfreeze has a similiar intro - though in it's case pounding drums take the place of pots and pans. The electronics have a much thicker, meatier tone to them this time though, and it's overall just a much more aggressive peice of music. This sounds more like the theme tune of the guy who mugs you on that nighttime walk through Stockwell I mentioned earlier. A simple basic figure repeats itself over and over, with minor variations, but rather than building up into a moment of transcendent euphoria, this track beats you down, makes you suffer until you achieve your hard-won ecstasy. Watch the end of Martyrs to get a better explanation of what I'm talking about. Halfway through, the track changes into groggy, punchdrunk atmospherics, which are then replaced by a pummeling drum machine beat overlaid with a storm of electronic bleeps and boops that sound half-sweet, half-sour, like having great unprotected sex with someone you know has herpes. Hidden XS is the second track on the album that passes the ten-minute mark. It starts off with what sounds like a euphoric clubland buildup, if it had been beaten to death with a hammer and left in the heat for a while. It's like something very nice gone decidedly rotten. It soon resolves itself into an introspective, meditative piece. This is the kind of music that I wish the clubs near me played. Of all the tracks on this album, this sounds the most like conventional dance music - it's considerably deeper than that of course, though. This sounds like music for some ritual for an as-yet-undiscovered religion, or possibly the soundtrack to a fucking good sci-fi film. This is the most accessible Fuck Buttons track I've heard - if you're new to noise, I'd suggest this as a starting point.
Prince's Prize begins decidedly oddly, even for these guys. It starts off with a skittering, tinny maze of electronic sounds like an early Nintendo game soundtrack. Soon enough, though, the beat kicks in and it's off on an entirely different track. The rhythm is lively in a way that the Fuck Buttons rarely are - it jumps around like a child with a skipping rope - but for me, this track falls a little flat. It's not that there's anything wrong with it - there's just nothing particularly right with it. The Red Wing starts off with a beat reminiscent of Jay Z - it's got that swagger and that edge. Underneath that, cutting through the rhythm, is a sound like a cross between a fly and a chainsaw. To begin with, The Red Wing sounds like nothing so much as a hip-hop backing track, but it soon moves into something much more interesting. High-pitched sounds, like electronic angels, pierce the mix, lifting it up, making it sound like church music from the 23rd century. It's hypnotic, uplifting, and damn near impossible to listen to quietly. It's on this track that the band become truly worthy of being compared to the mighty Part Chimp - this is a track that stands up alongside Chimp's best, providing a glimpse of what that band would have sounded like if they'd used synthesisers instead of guitar, bass and drums. Utterly wonderful.
Year of the Dog is a shorter track, and again it starts off like something you;d hear on MTV Dance, only with a squallling sound underneath that sounds like a flock of seagulls. A bright, fast riff opens the track, alongside what could be a choir playing gameboys. It goes on in the same vein, building up into a frenzied intensity like some tribal dance, before decaying into Burial-esque atmospherics, then further and further to complete disintegration, as ambient seagull noise takes over entirely.
This is a fantastic album by a fantastic band.
Rating: 9/10
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