Singles

Fuck Buttons - Surf Solar

Tim Miller 09/09/2009

Rating: 4/5

It isn't overly long since Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power, the duo that make up the affrontingly-named Fuck Buttons, unleashed their difficult first album: six tracks of rumbling, brash noise, only just kept in check by pounding synth loops, scattered yelping lyrics and peculiar interlocking beats. Baffling yet mesmerising, it was a critical favourite for 2008, and mapped an experimental noisenik template that the Buttons seemed only too keen to exaggerate further.

And with Surf Solar it's clear their ideas have indeed expanded. Horror strings screech as the affirming rhythm bounds into the picture; fragmented, wordless vocals loop in rhythm, and above it all is that heady buzzsaw synth layer. Unlike the majority of Street Horrrsing, it moves smoothly between defined chords and quickly reaches full strength for its duration - though this is quite possibly due to its status as lead single: here, it's the sub-four minute '7” edit', which almost guarantees that the version on forthcoming second album Tarot Sport will be an altogether different prospect.

From Surf Solar in its single guise, then, we can gather that Messrs Hung and Power have retained the exhilarating sound from their debut, but as well as upping the ante in the intensity stakes, there's more surface to the substance too. Interest has started to click into gear over Tarot Sport, too, and from this delicious taster, it could be very well founded.


Released 14th September