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Fuck Buttons
Fuck Buttons members Andrew Hung (left) and Benjamin John Power (right) in 2007
Background information
Origin	Bristol, England, United Kingdom
Genres	Drone music, post-rock, electronic, experimental
Years active	2004–present
Labels	ATP Recordings

Members	Andrew Hung Benjamin John Power

Website	myspace.com/fuckbuttons

Fuck Buttons are a two-piece electronic group formed in Bristol in 2004 by Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power.

Biography

Hung and Power grew up in Worcester. Hung was influenced by Aphex Twin, while Power was a fan of Mogwai. They developed a friendship in 2004 while attending art school in Bristol, and began working together, initially to create the soundtrack to a film made by Hung. Immediately after forming, they played live whenever possible, and soon gathered a cult following. The duo use a variety of instruments including Casiotone keyboards and children's toys such as a Fisher-Price karaoke machine. Their name was chosen to sound "playful and abrasive".

Time Out magazine described the band's live sound as "adrenaline pumping, ear purging slab of towering, pristine noise…". The duo signed to All Tomorrow's Parties-affiliated ATP Recordings in 2007, and released a limited-edition 7" single named "Bright Tomorrow", which received complimentary reviews from such sources as Drowned in Sound, Pitchfork Media (who described it as "something like the sun rising over the ocean... then going supernova"), Mojo (it became their No. 1 Mojo Playlist Single for that month) and Stereogum.

Combined with an upsurge in reviews of their live performances at the Supersonic, Truck and Portishead-curated ATP festivals in the second half of 2007, this attention resulted in Fuck Buttons being included in many end of year newspaper, magazine and online articles predicting them as a 'Hot Tip' for 2008. These included New-Noise, who said that "rarely have two men sounded so much like the end of the world" and British newspaper The Observer, which called their sound "a joyous racket of swirling atmospherics and percussive gunfire" in an article highlighting them in a new wave of intelligent, literate British pop music.

They started the year with a tour of slightly larger UK venues, supported by label-mate Alexander Tucker. This was done to build anticipation for their debut album, Street Horrrsing, which was released on 17 March. Produced by John Cummings of Mogwai and mastered by Bob Weston of Shellac, it was promoted through festival appearances (including a slot at this May's ATP vs Pitchfork festival) and a North American tour with Caribou. The band have also started to receive some airplay from mainstream BBC Radio stations, whose DJs often struggle to think of an alternative moniker to announce in place of the band's full name - it usually gets shortened to "F Buttons".

Early reviews of Street Horrrsing were very positive; it was named Underground Album of the Month by Mojo Magazine, who called it "a 50-minute melange of iridescent synths, psychedelic drone, distorted vocals and tribal rhythm". Pitchfork Media awarded it with an 8.6 out of 10 rating which placed it in their "best new music" section. Positive reviews also featured in The Times, The Observer, The Wire, NME, Rock Sound, Kerrang!, Uncut, Sydney Morning Herald, and many other music publications and websites. It was also chosen for the shortlist of The Guardian's First Album awards.

In 2009, the band appeared at the Australian All Tomorrow's Parties event. They released their second album, Tarot Sport in October 2009. It has been well received, with Rock Sound giving it an 8 out of 10 rating and hailing its consistency ("the continuity gluing them together confirms a genuine full-length article to brandish at all those gun-jumping ‘The album is dead’ doomsayers"), while Allmusic gave it a 4-star rating, describing it as "an impressive step forward for Fuck Buttons". Discussing it with Exclaim! magazine, the band admitted that "direction is not something we are conscious about because it doesn't fit into our creative process. We just want to keep being content and surprising ourselves".

Surf Solar and Olympians featured separately during the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony on 27 July 2012. Sundowner from Powers solo venture Blanck Mass was covered by the London Symphony Orchestra during the raising of the Union Jack.

Discography

Street Horrrsing (CD / 2×LP, ATPR, 2008)
Tarot Sport (CD / 2×LP, ATPR, 2009) UK No. 79, U.S. Dance No. 9, U.S. Heatseekers No. 18

Singles

"Let's See If There Are Any Ghosts In Here, Yeah?" (CD-R Single)
"Bright Tomorrow" (limited picture Disc 7″ single, ATPR, 2007)
"Colours Move" (12″/download single, ATPR, 2008)
"Surf Solar" (7″/download single, ATPR, 2009)
"Olympians" (12"/download single, ATPR, 2010)

Remixes

"If I Had a Heart" - Fever Ray (2008)
"Virginia State Epileptic Colony" - Manic Street Preachers (2009)
"Kaili" - Caribou (2010)
"Tornado" - Jónsi (2011)

References

^ Kellman, Andy "Fuck Buttons Biography", Allmusic, Macrovision Corporation, retrieved 22 November 2009
^ Interview: Fuck Buttons, retrieved 5 December 2009
^ Santoro, Gene (2008) "F- Buttons bring the noise", New York Daily News, 28 March 2008, retrieved 22 November 2009
Time Out, 8th January 2008
Pitchfork: Forkcast
Top Tips For 2008 Pt.I - Band Profile
Observer Music Monthly, 20th January 2008
"Who should win the Guardian first album award?", The Guardian, 6 November 2008, retrieved 22 November 2009
Kennedy, Adam F. (2009) "Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport" Rock Sound, retrieved 22 November 2009
Phares, Heather "Tarot Sport Review", Allmusic, Macrovision Corporation, retrieved 22 November 2009
Lindsay, Cam (2009) "Fuck Buttons' Surprise", Exclaim!, November 2009, retrieved 22 November 2009
Album Information, Billboard.com

External links

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