Fuck Buttons @ Stereo 24/09/09

A couple of days before tonight I suffered a slightly awkward moment upon purchasing a friend’s ticket for this evening show. Uttering the words ‘Fuck Buttons’ drew a quizzical expression from the ticket agent along with embarrassed giggles from a group of young girls. However, if these people had experienced the music of Fuck Buttons I’m sure they’d reverse their reaction, either for that of absorbed amazement or sheer terror, as Fuck Buttons are one of the most complex sounding electronic acts to emerge from the UK in recent years.

The Worcester duo mesmorise as they bop up and down in relative darkness, the ear busting noise created gently by opener ‘Surf Solar’. Songs merge together and build to euphoric climax and at times the sound is almost apocalyptic. The Buttons have drawn an unlikely fanbase from Top Gear fans as ‘Bright Tomorrow’ features regularly on the popular BBC show, the track live is epic and the Top Gear crew standing infront of me clearly approve! They power through tracks from brutally brilliant debut album, Street Horrsing and draw heavily on songs from second album Tarot Sport, the highlights being ‘Space Mountain’ and ‘Flight of the Feathered Serpent’ bold tracks that pushes the audience’s ears to the verge of self-destruct, even with ear plugs its still bloody loud! The new songs see Fuck Buttons walk a much more accessible path than their previous work, but still the complex collage of sound remains, only in less scary, mould. Encore ‘Sweet Love for Planet Earth‘ is a fitting end to a very impressive set.

Benjamin John Power and Andrew Hung’s sound holds a majority of a jam-packed Stereo crowd affixed in some sort of awestruck wonder. Once the show is finished it takes a good minute to remove yourself from the trancelike state forced open you by the sheer force of noise created, a force the duo should take a huge amount of credit for creating.

Their second album Tarot Sport produced and remixed by the legendary Andrew Weatherall will be released by ATP Recordings on 5th October. They then embark on a coast to coast US tour before arriving back in the UK to play at the 10 Years of ATP festival in December.

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Words: Iain Dawson
Pics: Sam Fenn