Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus

If you needed any proove of the Brits love for the unexpected, than all you’d had to do, was: watching last year’s opening ceremony for the Olympic Games in London. Not only did we hear an impressive caleidoscope of British pop-history, we also heard an official anthem called Olympians that seemed to be somewhat deranged but oddly captivating. To be bold: which other nationality would have had the balls to ask electronic/noise-duo FUCK BUTTONS to write one of the main anthems for this huge event? Just imagine these two sound-nerds from Bristol, opposing each other in front of their ridiculous amount of sound-equipment, hammering out their slightly disturbing, anti-four-to-the-floor, post-house-noise to a crowd of millions of people – it would be funny if it wouldn’t have been for real.

Now the duo is back with their third full-length after the surprisingly successful Tarot Sports from 2009. And what a comeback it is – these are the lullabies to your favorite nightmare! The eight minutes of Brainfreeze might claim to be graspable rock at first listen, but as they go on, you find yourself being trapped in a devious mist of brutal beats, noises and subtle melodies. It remains to be unknown how Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power unleash this apocalyptic feast just by means of layering sounds and a thick production. But it works.

Celebrating the more stark moments of their catalogue, Slow Focus feels a bit like the flipside to Tarot Sports. All in all you could say that the single The Red Wing is the only moment of real catchiness on here – catchiness in case you like to dance to old B-movie-horror-soundtracks, needless to say. The rest is, roughly spoken, a dystopian, post-industrial landscape of enigmatic beauty. A song like Stalker seems to be the perfect soundequivalent for our world full of PRISM, paranoia and anxiety – cold, technical perfection in an overwhelming context. This context might be the reason why there’s always a certain sense of broadness and freedom within Slow Focus: it’s breathing, it is alive, actually. But it’s not a form of life we know on this planet. Not yet. Honestly: first the nothing less impressive Tomorrow’s Harvest by BOARDS OF CANADA and now FUCK BUTTONS; two albums of that sort and class in one year – I don’t know if that’s a good thing. Or if it’s just the world’s last, deep breath before the apocalypse. We got enough possible soundtrack material for it now, that’s for sure.

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FUCK BUTTONS