thevoid99's Full Review: Street Horrrsing [PA] [Digipak] by Fuck Buttons
One of the new acts from Bristol, England. Home of trip-hop acts like Massive Attack, Tricky, and Portishead. F*ck Buttons, consisting of Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power, are a different electronic act from their trip-hop contemporaries as they're known for their experimental take on electronic music, particularly with the drone sub-genre. Though they formed in 2004 and released singles three years later, their reputation for their noisy approach to electronic drone and dance music has caught the attention of the press. In 2008, the band released their full-length debut release entitled Street Horrrsing.
Produced by John Cummings with tracks written by Andrew Hung & Benjamin John Power. Street Horrrsing is an album filled with ambient drones filled with swirling noises of keyboards, synthesizers, and other electronic devices with laptop computers. While it's largely an instrumental record, it's an album that challenges the boundaries of what drone music can be with elements of post-rock and ambient music. The results is one of 2008's most overlooked albums that challenge the landscape of electronic music.
The album opener Sweet Love For Planet Earth arrives with smooth, flourishing chimes followed by soft bass melodies. Growling guitar drones appear to dominate the track as it's followed by sounds of chugging electronics that swirl through. Soothing synthesizers appear as the growling guitar tracks chug through with screaming sounds and raging guitars. Ribs Out is a track driven by hollow, pounding tribal beats with warbling vocal chants that swirl through. With hollow percussions playing in the background, it's a cut that is wild and entrancing while being the shortest track on the album at nearly four minutes.
The ten-minute and eight-seconds track Okay, Let's Talk About Magic is the longest track on the album. Led by swirling noises of electronic drones, the track features waves of vocal backgrounds of people talking and screaming. With the buzzing electronic drones going into a smooth, ambient-like feel. Thumping beats arrive to intensify the track as growling guitar sounds appear in this amazing yet eerie suite. Race You To My Bedroom/Spirit Rise is a nine-minute, eighteen second track with waves of swooning guitar growls and soothing keyboards. A largely, ambient-driven track, it becomes more chaotic with its sounds of screams, talking voices, and growling guitars.
Bright Tomorrow is a dance-driven track led by a thumping beat and shimmering synthesizers that is followed by a soothing keyboard melody. Chainsaw-laden guitar drone arrive after a few minutes as it continues the track's dance-ambient presentation with screaming vocals in the background. The last track is the eight-minute, forty-seconds Colours Move with its wave of droning guitar growls and swirling synthesizers. Along with grinding, pulsating beats and stuttering electronic wails that pop up throughout the track along with other sounds of screams and chants to close the album.
Street Horrrsing is an excellent yet eerie album from F*ck Buttons. Fans of noisy, unconventional, and esoteric styles of electronic and experimental music will enjoy this though it loses a bit of its ambient-driven flow during the second half of the album. It's a record that is very challenging and certainly not for everyone as some people might feel that it's overly pretentious. In the end, Street Horrrsing is a remarkable debut album from F*ck Buttons.
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