Fuck Buttons - "Street Horrrsing"

Fuck Buttons - Okay, Let's Talk About Magic (ATP/R 2008)

Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing / ATP/R

What's Good About This Album

- Fuck Buttons are emerging as a refreshing new voice in the latest generation of noise-based artists fascinated by the possibilities in doing more with noise than merely make it loudly. The patterns, the subtleties, the intricate builds and steadfast rhythms layered hazily beneath the drones of this relatively short album are at times cleverly crafted for two kids out of Bristol, England.

- Benjamin John Power and Andrew Hung are both relatively young, leaving open the possibility of further evolution and development if the SXSW overexposure hasn't already gotten to them.

- Even with that said, what they've done with tracks like "Sweet Love for Planet Earth" is make a sonic melange that recalls everyone from My Bloody Valentine to Over the Atlantic to Yellow Swans to Wolf Eyes to M83. In short, it mixes some electronic beats with equally artificial synth noise for a spot-on sound that shows promising signs of going further than the fleeting tribal beats or occasional vocal appearance will allow.

- For future press releases: It's what Black Dice would sound like if they grew up listening to synth-pop instead of hardcore, Modern English instead of Minor Threat. Or, in blogosphere terms, Black Dice for the Justice set.

What's Bad About This Album

- Hype, clearly.

- Some parts feel underdeveloped at times. By underdeveloped, I might also mean overly simplistic; is it the screamy gothic vocals left over from their early days? Is it that these tracks feel like they could be something more and just never turn out that way? Is it merely the parody-worthy cover-art? Each person will find a different reason for criticism because, as a lot of people have been quick to point out, "it's not perfect." Well, yeah.

- It sucks broken up into parts because each song bleeds into another; track points are arbitrary. I'm sorry that we run a blog and that we insist on only offering one song at a time (Actually, no I'm not), but you're just going to have to take my word for it on this one when I say that this thing is so, so much better taken as a whole than it is broken up into parts for your fragile little mind to consume. Does that offend you, yeah? Well you can just go Hype Machine the rest. It's not like you found us through the Trapt door anyway.

- It's not called Street Whorrrsing, which is much funnier because you get the sleaze and a two-bit "Oh, here's another horse band!" punchline.

- We're only one album in. Probably not a good idea to get carried away with the hyperbole. Yet.