Fuck Buttons – Street Horrrsing (ATP, 2008)
Forming late in 2004 on an island called England, this duo possesses the sensibilities of any band. It’s able to create a stirring melody, one that’s even hum-able. To counter that normalcy, Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power also exhibit a penchant for noise and electronic manipulations.
Suited to its interests, Street Horrsing is six tracks deep, with each offering pushing past any general pop-song time limit. And while there is no reason for the lead off track, “Sweet Love for Planet Earth”, to be 9 minute long, Fuck Buttons do include every sound, sometimes even touching something that might remind the listener a bit of an ominous horror movie theme song. That, however, is not the pointed objective of this group.
“Ribs Out”, which one would imagine to be a biblical reference, is all percussion, yelps and a brief electronic bit of fuzz which leads seamlessly into the next track. The simplicity of that track really is the essence of the duo. While creating music that is basic enough for any (advanced) listener to grasp, Fuck Buttons, move seamlessly to a more menacing statement – often recalling nasty film scores.
The most engaging track, “Bright Tomorrow”, seems to be the duos effort to cop other sounds as opposed to having lap-top freakouts. At once recalling ‘80s pop, with a standard keyboard melody, the song eventually evokes Spacemen 3 before the bursts of distortion bring the song back to its owners.
Street Horrrsing is obviously not for the faint of heart, but Hung and Power probably like it that way. There’s not, unfortunately, a lot to be done with this genre (new or re-created), but it’ll be interesting to hear further explorations on what is the Fuck Button’s thesis on noise.
