Fuck Buttons is the music scene’s saviour
A refreshing antidote to all that pop nonsense
HMV Forum, Kentish Town Thursday 21st April
In a decade unfortunately masked by the lousy sounds of David Guetta and The Black Eyed Peas, we should be praying to the likes of Fuck Buttons as our rare saving grace. If you’ve been living in the chart bubble let me bring you up to speed: the London-based experimental electronic duo have been tearing up the scene with their unique blend of minimalist sounds extracted from miscellaneous children’s toys, and already have a few of those coveted Pitchfork ratings under their belts.
The duo appeared on-stage to greet a table full of electronic gizmos: with the retro Game Boys and Fischer Price keyboards it looked like a messy children’s room, but they clearly knew what they were doing. As they faced each other in a head-on standoff we experienced an unusual form of audience interaction: rather than bowing to the crowd, they instead invited us in to look at some of the creativity that goes into the tracks we’ve come to love.
As my girlfriend so succinctly put it, “it was like watching a spaceship land”. An uninterrupted hour or so of those anthems that have been the soundtrack to my bedroom over the past few years was well overdue. In spite of the sticky floor everyone was moving in sync, accompanied by an impressive light display that added to the cosmic atmosphere.
The set ran perfectly as each track paved the way for the next in bursting crescendo. Rather than being exposed to their iTunes library we were watching the melodies being built from scratch, which included crackled yelping into toy microphones and belting tribal drums. Their delivery was so energetic, which definitely had a lasting impact on the audience engagement.
Fuck Buttons were definitely worth the wait, and I’ll be bulk-buying tickets to their next London show as soon as it pops into existence. If your life is in need of a new soundtrack, I suggest you go and download Street Horrrsing and Tarot Sport, or at least check out some tracks on YouTube: their lyricless epics are guaranteed to be the perfect accompaniment to your study session or Sheen-esque shindig.
