Review Summary: The Butts create an enjoyable record, and, perhaps, a new subgenre of electronica.
It seems like DJ Tanner was always just missing creating an album that is a true reflection of his talent. Sure, Incognito Burrito's work came close with their catchy melodies and danceable beats, but they suffered from not having anything that made them stand out from the long line of dance bands (I expect all the die-hard Incognito Burrito fans want to lynch me by this point). The Butts' first two EPs did show originality. DJ Tanner, fed up with creating what he considered "cheap pop music," shunned hooks for two releases, preferring to create loop-based music. But where The Butts failed is their immaturity; one track consisted solely of his farting, and of course the name of the band won't win anybody's respect.
But with their third EP, The Butts, they made an album that someone can put on a pedestal as a testament to his creativity. Is it still immature? Yes, but it's mature immaturity. The Butts evidently realized that goofy humor wears off quickly, so with this album they used that goofiness as a building block to create actual music. "Yo" starts off seeming like it will simply be three minutes of a "yo" sound clip, but that is quickly subverted when it becomes the basis of a beat created out of overlapping yo's at different rhythms and with staggered entrances. The song ends up having one of the most complex beat beds on the album and in dance music.
Also, The Butts reintroduces melodies into DJ Tanner's music, as he brings back some of the dance elements found in Incognito Burrito's music. However, he is smart enough not to fall into the trap of switching back to his former style without injecting something new, despite knowing how it would please his fanbase. Instead, he combines the catchy dance-pop of Incognito Burrito and the experimental nature of The Butts to create a new sound entirely.
An example of this is the opener "Spiders", and although it starts as a typical dance song, ambient noises and backwards talking are added, giving everything a veiled darkness behind the seemingly happy beat. But the best track on the album, which also serves as the centerpiece of the album as it transcends almost all prior notions of electronica, is "What's All This Then?" The marriage of the two styles is so natural that The Butts instantly take it further to create a huge, billowing, behemoth of a song. As soon as you think "Okay, now they're done adding to the beat" something else comes up and blows that idea away.
The album is not perfect though, as a band named The Butts could never resist a chance to screw it up. At the end of "Spiders" the music abruptly stops and DJ Tanner says, "Dicks." While this is slightly amusing at first (if only for it coming out of nowhere), it cheapens the song as a whole, taking away from its replay value. In addition to that, there is the short song "Indians", which is just a sample of someone saying, "Now I'll have to call in the reserves!" Instead of an abrupt, profane ending and a lame reservation pun, The Butts should have made a real ending and made sure that "Indians" never saw the light of day.
But overall, The Butts' self-titled album is an enjoyable album that tries (almost) as hard it can to push the boundaries of its genre. All the faults that it carries are tolerable, and none are that egregious. If The Butts tone down the prepubescent humor, they could lead a new movement of electronic music.
