Caught Live: Fuck Buttons

Fuck Buttons new album Tarot Sport, their follow up to the triumphant debut Street Horrssing, took their music to a train tunnel in central London to thump their dark beats into the collective masses. And rarely has this reviewer been to a recent gig without being surrounded by a plethora of young folk, and this aged crowd got treated to something special in the support act of Clark. It was a joy to see and hear what one man can produce, in the Warp man’s case a pure cacophony of suitably loud sound. With DJ and Tarot Sport producer Andrew Weatherall also providing music in between sets, the sold-out crowd had something of a buzz when headlining duo Andrew Hung and Benjamin Power took their marks face to face on either side of the stage.

 

Beginning with ‘Surf Solar’, the epic lead off single from their new record, Fuck Buttons instantly stripped the ‘somewhat’ out of the aforementioned buzz. The set was accompanied by a stellar light show and the sound at times broaching on the crest of a wave. Although as soon you felt that you were about to get going, forgetting that this venue was the centre of London, you suddenly where brought crashing back to earth by the realisation that it’s a Tuesday night and there’s work in the morning…

 

Likewise it was hard for the duo to keep the crowd going for a whole set despite the distorted screaming of the much more animated Power on Street Horrssing’s ‘Sweet Love for Planet Earth’ providing another highlight. It is perhaps the problem with music that is so evocative and raw, with songs peaking and troughing, that it is inherently difficult to maintain a crowd for so long, especially mid week. If this reviewer was stood in a field or quarry burning the last vestages of the midnight oil, you would be reading a totally different review.

 

More than not though, there were glimpses of the capabilities of the duo, which were clear when they played a stunning set in Rough Trade in Bethnal Green a couple of weeks earlier. And while this was not quite Heaven for this reviewer, it was certainly going in the right direction.