Though most of what can be heard on Street Horrrsing can be found on the singles and EPs that preceded it, they were never given such admirable context until now. Each track evokes a feeling whether ghastly or gay, leaving the listener undoubtedly longing for more. On their own, Street Horrsing’s tracks have garnered much praise, but upon listening to this cohesive effort it’s almost as if each was written precisely for this piece. Once the album begins it becomes a task to turn it off, rather than to commit.
As for each individual track, there is a common formula for most of the songs on Street Horrrsing. Like a wave we are brought from the preceding track into the next, which seemingly never becomes fully realized as its own until about 2 minutes in. When the layers of noise and distortion finally coalesce, we are presented with these ideas of dialogue that, although incoherently screamed, never suggest an aggressive nature. In fact, it is never clear if what we hear is actually voices, or simply an expansion of the sounds we’d been hearing through the course of the track. These sounds haunt each track, splashing around at either end. This is most undeniably true in the stand out second track, ‘Ribs Out’. Here we see Fuck Buttons at their most mellow, but not compromising any intensity. The song follows the formula considerably, but in a way unlike the others on Street Horrrsing. Rather than coalescing with walls of noise, ‘Ribs Out’ takes those presumed vocals and makes them the center piece of each moment in the track.
It isn’t until the rough transition between ‘Race You to My Bedroom/ Spirit Rise’ and ‘Bright Tomorrow’ that we truly become aware of the tracks as more than just functions of the aforementioned formula. Bright Tomorrow could in itself be considered a sort of comedown in that it isn’t expanded upon in the same way the opening track was from its original placement in the Sweet Love for Planet Earth EP. Although it ends on a different note, it doesn’t do a great deal to plunge the listener into the next track as those before it had. In fact, with ‘Bright Tomorrow’ the formula for which most of their songs consisted of becomes null, and remains that way through the following closer, ‘Colours Move’. But if ‘Bright Tomorrow’ is a comedown, 'Colours Move’ is hope for the same high. This becomes clear at about the 2 minute mark, from which we are given nuances of all that we had heard before.
Street Horrrsing is a strong debut, evoking reminisces of everything from Animal Collective to Tim Hecker. But where those two perfect their respective arts, Fuck Buttons serve as an ideal middleman perfecting the accessibility of the collective while composing as concise as Hecker, and in turn coming into their own. It’s unfortunate that most people will regard this album as simply noise, when there is clearly much more to it. Such is the mindset, though, that we too commonly accept as the standard. Thankfully, Fuck Buttons deny said norms presenting us with a cohesive, challenging and very credible debut.
Street Horrrsing due via ATP Recordings March 18th
Fuck Buttons play Doug Fir April, 21st with Caribou.
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