Since their last album, Tarot Sport, Fuck Buttons have gained well deserved recognition for their mining of the creatively fertile territory between noise/texture/cacophony and melody. That album was a compelling and grandiose demonstration of what the duo could do and it earned them a well deserved spot on the soundtrack to the London Olympics' Opening Ceremonies. 4 years of relative inactivity later, the duo recently returned with a new album, Slow Focus, an impressive albeit slightly disappointing followup to the triumphant Tarot Sport.
Slow Focus is decidedly smaller in scale; however, it is no less noisy and "big" when compared with some of the other noted electronic releases this year. If Daft Punk was a study in pop/studio wizardry and Boards of Canada dealt in atmospherics, Fuck Buttons is an exploration of texture, drama on a grandiose scale. That it seems more minor is possibly more of a testament to how ambitious Tarot Sport was and how they so successfully pulled it off. Slow Focus lacks the peaks and valleys, doing away with moments of catharsis. Like Boards of Canada, this is a record of building tension with no discernible moment of emotional release to match what is developed. Taken together, we could begin to read into this a response to mainstream electronic music, itself so heavy on catharsis that tracks are almost all climax.
Slow Focus opens with a lone drum gradually giving way to rising and squelching synths. It is familiar territory for Fuck Buttons. The use of the descriptor "squelching" is especially appropriate given just how textural their music is, bringing attention to the corporeality of these sounds an inextricable element of their music. The droning squelch/burble in "Sentients" is especially emblematic of this element and underscores the record's pervading anxiety.
What is new here, however, is the addition of the beat on "Red Wing." The lead single is the album's strongest point and an indication of what the group can do when they target the dance floor. It is perhaps too droning and textural to actually work as something to put on at the height of a party, but still demonstrates the duo can create and utilize a beat effectively. Unfortunately, the duo never really develops this beyond "The Red Wing," and the rest of the album remains rooted in familiar territory.
As a whole, Slow Focus sounds almost too similar to Tarot Sport barring its lacking of that earlier record's dramatic sweep. This dramatic sweep was also what cohered Tarot Sport into a solid statement. On Slow Focus, the sound is the same but the tracks do not gel together in quite the same way. As a result of this, the record sounds more like a collection of darker outtakes from Tarot Sport. This would be fine if not for the fact that there was a 4 year gap between releases. This is a substantial amount of time to stop and then resurface with something not that radically different from before. Overall, it feels like Fuck Buttons are capable of more.
While a strong record, Slow Focus fails to build on the potential of previous releases. It seems like the ambition is gone and the scope drastically cut down. Never fully coming together, this record is nothing more than a collection of tense, noisy, and textural songs and not much more. Strong, yes, but a full step forward, no.
Grade B
I can't help but feel a little bummed out about this record but for a different reason. I adored their first album Street Horrrsing as the sound of uncompromising apocalyptic noise and drone. As this band gets further away from that dissonance and emotional valleys I feel they've just become less interesting. I think both of the more recent albums have been okay... it's just never going to be the thing I want from Fuck Buttons.