Thursday 25 July 2013

Fuck Buttons - Slow Focus


That’s right: Fuck Buttons. But get past the funny name, though, and ‘Slow Focus’ will transport you far away from your daily life.

The location?  An apocalypse, the sort you can only envision in your nightmares.  This latest album from the Bristol-based duo continues their noisy, techno drone music with cinematic flare.  If this were a film soundtrack, it would be a psychological horror, slowly weaving its way deeper into your consciousness.

Album opener Brainfreeze begins with thumping drum rhythms and doom-laden synth textures, voicelessly calling you down to its hellish soundscape of sinister squealing and bass-heavy drones.  The Red Wing pairs its beats with grinding synths that sound like a chainsaw ripping through your soul, whilst Sentients is constructed of alien, technological sounds, ominous bass notes and a central riff that eerily sounds almost human.  The alien-theme continues with Stalker that takes the listener out into the great void with its space-age whirring and grandiose vision.  

By the time Hidden Xs comes around, the final and best track on the album, you’re just about ready to wake up from the nightmare.  This is a track that embodies the spirit of Fuck Buttons, all techno beats, lumbering bass drones and dystopian guitar wails for an overwhelming, transporting sound that forces you to just stop and soak it all in.

The only major criticism of ‘Slow Focus’ is, as the title suggests, its long-windedness.  Yet this comes with the territory of this style of ambient, drone music – music that seems to stretch on for infinity, repeating and evolving at a glacial pace.  A track like Prince’s Prize can therefore become rapidly grating, whilst Year of the Dog is overly suggestive of Vangelis’ Blade Runner score.  You might feel exhausted and mesmerised by the album’s end, but you’ll be more than willing to jump straight back in again.

3/5

Gizzle's Choice:
* Brainfreeze
* Stalker
* Hidden Xs

Listen: 'Slow Focus' is available now.