Review Summary: On their first album, the two noisemakers from Bristol make it seem like they've been doing it all their life.
The first track from
Street Horrrsing, the first album by experimental English duo *** Buttons, starts out innocently enough: its tinkling keyboard sound wanders around for just over a minute before a distorted guitar sound enters without warning, giving the song an exciting intensity. The song’s tendency to repeat itself foreshadows the rest of the album’s musical near-perpetuality. However, when the songs are as interesting and exciting as they are here, repetition isn’t exactly a problem: instead of simply rendering themselves redundant, the songs here add in unexpected turns, full of distorted screaming and bassy, distorted guitar drones.
Bands like *** Buttons that are labeled as “noise music” always have a tendency to alienate the small amount of listeners they have, but
Street Horrrsing never feels alien. It’s constantly surprising, especially in transitions like the one between the drone-y opener, “Sweet Love for Planet Earth”, and the tribal chants and drums of “Ribs Out”. However,
Street Horrrsing does have the potential to take you to places that seem musically alien to the uninitiated. “Okay, Let’s Talk About Magic”, which opens with a repeating drone loop over distorted screaming vocals, suddenly transitions into a very listenable, almost 8-bit sounding beat (drones still intact) about three and a half minutes in. It slowly builds, adding an organ-esque sound, until the screams return at the end of the track. The album ends on a loud drone, and then continues into the next track, “Race You to My Bedroom/Spirit Rise”.
Street Horrrsing is full of exciting and fervent moments like these, but is also full of moments that may even relax the listener (a rare feat for noise music). Despite its loud volume, “Race You to My Bedroom/Spirit Rise”, with its seemingly endless ocean of drone, has a peculiar calmness to it, where the listener can simply let the noise wash over them. “Bright Tomorrow”, which starts off with a surprisingly simple four-on-the-floor beat backed by a repeating synth, soon adds their now-familiar drones, while the synth slowly drifts away from the beat. The whole album paints its songs in a coat of sonic smog, allowing the listener to turn off their senses and let the music do the work.
Because of this trait, the album works better as a whole piece than as a collection of individual songs. It’s a work showing sonic expertise at the hands of Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power, the duo who make up *** Buttons. It’s never an intentionally challenging album, but the album’s repetition may turn away some listeners looking for a more accessible or “easy” approach to experimental music in
Street Horrrsing’s vein. Chances are, by the time "Colours Move" ends, listeners will have either walked away from it or be awe-struck by its immense sensory power, ready to revisit the intense experience.
