Culture

Rating: 3.5/5

English two-piece Fuck Buttons have spent the last decade crafting their own assaultive brand of electronica. Drawing influence from Aphex Twin and Mogwai, they snub gloss and perfectionism in favour of songs that are loud, coarse and engulfing. Though performed on an impressive array of electronic instruments (including synthesizers, Casio keyboards and Fisher Price toys), they distort these digital sounds into walls of guitar-like fuzz. Forget nightclubs or neon dancefloors; Fuck Buttons are the sound of a hundred-foot tower of amplifiers.

“Brainfreeze,” the opening track of their third and latest full-length Slow Focus, perfectly illustrates the duo’s raw, crushing approach. The song swells in volume and density for just shy of nine minutes, liquefying your brain with monolithic noise until it trickles from your nose. There are traces of fellow sonic annihilators Sunn O))) and Boris to be found in “Brainfreeze,” along with several other songs on Slow Focus.

Though I share Fuck Buttons’ love for ear-splitting, face-melting noise, this infatuation comes at a cost. Slow Focus certainly rewards your attention, but for the most part it doesn’t demand it. Songs like “Brainfreeze” are so obsessed with being heavy and all-encompassing that they forget to be exciting too. They try to have a sense of escalation to them, but they often begin in such an inflated and hysterical manner that there is no real sense of drama.

Unsurprisingly, the two leanest and most focused tracks (“Sentients” and “Prince’s Prize”) are the most rewarding here. By toning down the hubbub for these two songs, Fuck Buttons let their attention to detail and beat-making abilities really shine. “Sentients” is an industrial anthem hinged on a gritty, Death Grips-like pulse, whilst “Prince’s Prize” marries tense keyboard arpeggios to adrenalised synth claps.

Though the final two songs head back into congested territory, “Stalker” and “Hidden XS” both end up justifying their 10-minute durations. Each track aches with a peculiar kind of melancholia, and proves hypnotically repetitive rather than wearyingly so. And although it is suffocated in synth muck, the beat on “Hidden XS” charmingly echoes that of Burial’s seminal track “Kindred.”

If Fuck Buttons reigned in their love for cacophony a little bit, and perhaps took the production up a notch (they produced Slow Focus themselves), this album could have easily earned another star. As it stands, Slow Focus is an impressive yet grimy jewel that could have used a little more polish.