Album Review - Fuck Buttons

Fuck Buttons – Street Horrrsing
[ATP Recordings; 18/03/2008]

Fuck Buttons is a duo that has been causing quite a stir since the beginning of the year. The duo from Brighton - known as Benjamin Hung and Benjamin John Power - has built up a rapport alongside some worthy production candidates, with Mogwai guitarist John Cummings in the production seat while Shellec’s Bob Weston partakes in the mixing duties for the band’s debut album, Street Horrrsing.

The buzz, in some instances, is more than worthy with tracks such ‘Sweet Love for Planet Earth’ and ‘Bright Tomorrow’ almost sounding like Mogwai without guitars. Drenched with feedback, haunting distorted vocals and a melodic drone, these two tracks alone are the peak of what Fuck Buttons extrude from their speakers.

However it’s tracks such as ‘Let’s Talk About Magic and ‘Race You To My Bedroom/Spirit Rise’ that almost seem comatose and futile, with sound loops that although seem vicious, really fail to hit home with any conviction this band so brilliantly portrays through other parts of this affair.

Street Horrrsing is like a violent mood swing. There’s one half, which shows vision and a propulsive aesthetic that deems effective and extremely innovative. The other half is a band experimenting in literal sense of the word, with insipid noise that hauls itself into dead ends and blind spots.

Fuck Buttons could go either two ways, but there’s enough evidence to stick around and see which road they choose to take because potentially where talking about results that could be groundbreaking.

By Simon K