Fuck Buttons: Slow Focus

Andrew Hung and Benjamin Power’s celebrated soundtracking of last year’s Olympic Opening Ceremony may have given their music unlikely global exposure, but there’s precious little sign of a commercial cash-in on their third album. Indeed, the duo have described Slow Focus as “probably their darkest to date”, which given the content of the previous albums – mostly jagged, asphyxiating electro – is saying something.
The opening ‘Brainfreeze’ is propelled forward by a relentless drum beat, over which the duo layer all manner of menacing electro noise. ‘Year Of The Dog’ merges distressed synths with mangled sound effects, whilst ‘The Read Wing’ deploys more corrosive noise, this time over hip hop beats, and the track concludes with dramatic synth crescendoes. After the dark electro pulse of ‘Sentients’ and the warped video game sounds of ‘Prince’s Prize’, it’s time for the album’s climactic closing tracks, ‘Stalker’ and ‘Hidden XS’, which between them have a running time of over 20 minutes.
The former underpins unsettling electro sounds with some thumping beats, and concludes with overpowering, otherworldy noises (much in the manner of Fuck Buttons’ beloved Mogwai), while the latter is a Fennesz-meets-Aphex Twin mix of cranked-up distortion and skittering beats.
Whilst Mogwai’s post-rock soundscapes seem a bit old hat at this stage, their disciples Fuck Buttons have retained a thrilling extremity in their music. In Slow Focus they’ve produced one of the finest electronic albums of the year.

Key Track: 'Stalker'