Altsounds - Fuck Buttons [Live] @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester

As we all know by now, music is completely subjective, splintering off into genres with its own fans for each genre, and then divided again through its sub-genres. Then within these sub-genres each artist has their own fans, not usually as exclusive as the fans of a genre, but even within a sub-genre – one man’s Meat Puppets is another man’s Poison. Now to further indicate just how subjective music really is, ask a random 5 people who attended Sunday night’s Fuck Buttons gig at Manchester’s Deaf Institute, and you’d no doubt get 5 very different answers. The E’d up 30-something who had clearly stumbled in off the street because he heard a pounding beat, would no doubt tell you he had a great time but it had nothing on the Hacienda in 1990. The crusty hippies who had flung themselves around down the front of the support band’s performance would ask where on middle-earth were the didgeridoos, panpipes and other such world music instruments. The spotty freshers who popped in hoping to see a covers band playing the contents of this week’s NME are likely to cry in front of you and ask you to call their mum, and then there are the fans. Exactly what percentage of the crowd was made up by fans is unknown, but judging by the fact the venue was packed and yet the gig was still not sold out when I left my apartment at around 8:30, I’d say at least half of the attendees thought Fuck Buttons were an exciting new iPhone feature.

So what did the fans think? Well you see even Fuck Buttons’ fans can’t agree on Fuck Buttons – and I did say you’d probably get 5 different opinions on this gig. So for every fan who hangs on every repeated synth-line or drum beat, no matter how many times they are repeated, there are others who demand a little more from the Bristol duo in a live setting (I’ll quote one for you – “there really is no spectacle in watching two blokes nodding at a table and a suitcase”). In truth that’s a tad harsh, as not many bands move around other than to press a guitar pedal, so why should laptop-wielding electronic acts be damned for doing the same, and Fuck Buttons’ music in particular demands that they keep their eyes on their equipment for the majority of their set – it’s not the just-like-riding-a-bike experience of playing a bass guitar (“look mum – no hands”). So if we’re to forgive Fuck Buttons for their lack of a live spectacle, what of their sound? Well here too it could be said there is little variation; Fuck Buttons have a formula of repetition and of holding on to a winner. They find a sound they like and they run with it – not for 100 metres but for a marathon. And yet it works. When listening to Fuck Buttons’ music you are not entirely sure why it works, you just know it does (or it may not for you – they are as subjective as Fuck after all).

Their set on Sunday had the strongest possible opening – firstly new single ‘Surf Solar’, which goes from a Post Pavillion-like intro into some sort of shoegaze techno track (yeah if you want to call it “Technogaze”, NME, then you go ahead), it’s very possibly their finest track to date, which bodes well for their new album, “Tarot Sport”, which is due out next month. It’s well received by those who know what they’re here for, although next track ‘Colours Move’ is the real crowd favourite. Based around an incessant tribal beat, equally incessant distortion and elongated synth-notes, the duo add their own vocals for the first time, with Benjamin John Power’s primal screams punctuating Andrew Hung’s tropical jungle animal noises (lyric booklets were not on sale at the merch stall). Firing your biggest two weapons early doors is a tad brave, and some might say foolish move, but Fuck Buttons clearly have confidence in other tracks from their debut album, “Street Horrrsing,” such as ‘Bright Tomorrow’ and ‘Sweet Love For Panet Earth’, but also in the other new tracks they reveal this evening, and on first listen that confidence in these new tracks does not appear to be misplaced. The same belief in big sonics, made up of simple ingredients on a loop is still evident, but if it ‘aint broke, repeat it... but if it ‘aint broke, repeat it...but if it ‘aint broke, repeat it...but if it ‘aint broke, repeat it...but if it ‘aint broke, repeat it...but if it ‘aint broke, repeat it...but if it ‘aint broke, repeat it... but if it ‘aint broke, repeat it...

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