8
thursday, march 27,2008
Experimental act pushes buttons
BY BRYAN REED
DIVERSIONS editor
I find it interesting how our
pop-trained ears (and brains)
crave melody to such a degree that
when deprived of it, listening can
become a challenging, even painful
endeavor.
When familiar concepts of mel
ody are manipulated or exploited
even altogether abandoned
we consider the music to be avant
garde, inaccessible, unmusical.
But only through challenges and
explorations can our ideas be solid
ified, and the concept of melody
truly defined with any degree even
approaching adequacy.
The UK noise duo of Andrew-
Hung and Benjamin John Power,
better known as F-k Buttons, has,
with its debut LP, Street Horrrsing,
created a remarkably melodic effort
though it doesn't seem that way
at first.
The albums opener. “Sweet Love
For Planet Earth," begins with a
slow crescendo of gently sprinkled
keys eventually churning itself up
into more voluminous, but still
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down tempo, waves of feedback.
But it's in the approaching and
receding tones the feedback cre
ates that melodic ideas begin to
take shape.
Vocals don’t enter the picture
until five-and-a-half minutes in,
and even then, it's a distorted wail
just another texture in the bub
bling stew of sounds.
And F—k Buttons don’t shy away
from abrasive timbres at all.
The beauty is that they don’t shy
away from moments of gorgeous
serenity, either, creating a sense of
tension and release that keeps the
listener entangled in the music, lis
tening eagerly for the next passage
of melodic comfort.
The opening seconds of the 10-
minute “Okay, Let’s Talk About
Magic" provide a syncopated
groove that becomes infectious
with its repetition.
“Bright Tomorrow’ (the closest
to pop F—k Buttons get) drops the
bottom out for an ecstatic bout of
dance-pop rhythms and creeping
synthesizer melody. It's a moment
of respite and triumph as the lis-
Diversions
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Time: 9:30 p.m. Tuesday
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Info: www.catscradle.com
tener enters the album's home
stretch.
Street Horrrsing’s sixth and
final track, “Colours Move." lets a
heavy drone climb into pounding
rhythms that give way to upper
register melody (even harmony)
before retreating back to the very
same keyboard twinkles that
opened the record.
In its completeness, the LP
comes full circle, finding its way
through scathing atonality anil
melodic comfort with equal
aplomb, stringing us, the listeners.
■ along and showing us the common
ground between what we know as
pop music and what we often dis
miss as unmusical.
Here is an entirely musical
effort. Its manipulations of melod
ic expectations provide challenges,
but they’re challenges that are ulti-
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MUSIC REVIEW
F-K BUTTONS
STREET HORRRSING
NOISE
irkirkrf
mately satisfying w hen they wind
up resolved.
We still crave melody, but our
notions of what that concept entails
have developed.
And that's the record’s true
reward.
Contact the Diversions Editor
at dive(a unc.edu.
PARTY’S OVER
WmMJk
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dtm/alue muuin
New Jersey singer/songwriter Nicole Atkins left a
Local 506 audience spellbound with her lush, cine
matic pop songs Saturday. Atkins brought her band,
The Sea, on tour to promote its stellar 2007 album, Neptune
City, which is named after her New Jersey hometown.
Adam Green s solo
LP is just peachy
BY JAMIE WILLIAMS
ASSISTANT DIVERSIONS EDITOR
Sixes & Sevens is the type of
infectious pop that slowly makes its
way into tbe subconscious without
any effort.
It only takes one listen, but that
would never be enough to catch
all of Adam Green’s quirky lyrics
and eclectic pop sensibilities that
make his latest an insanely charm
ing trip.
Green who is probably best
known these days as one half of
the now-defunct (but more pop
ular than ever ) duo The Moldy-
Peaches playing Michael Cera
to Kimya Dawson's Ellen Page
delivers solo acoustic arrange
ments with a wink, a smile and an
eye for life’s awkwardly painful
situations.
He brings his twee influences
from that group, w-hile also com
bining anti-folk and a bit more
rock than one might expect.
Delivered in a wry baritone, “I
know what you’re thinking/’Cause
I m thinking it too/You'rc loving
his body/But what else is not
new?" comes off as humorous on
“Cannot Get Sicker.”
&hr Datlii Oar Brrl
MUSIC/?£V7FW
ADAM GREEN
SIXES i SEVENS
EOU/TWEC
itickirk
And when delivered later in the
song with the backing of a gos
pel choir, it recalls an exchange
in a musical comedy where
our scorned hero meets a former
flame with a song of heartbreak
backed by a gang of heavenly
voiced supporters.
That’s an indication of Sixes &
Sevens' best feature and possibly
most glaring flaw: nothing really
fits together.
Asa collection of songs, the LP
is strong, but it lacks the flow of a
classic.
The one minute “That Sounds
Like a Pony" features free-associat
ing internal rhyme that ends just as
it begins to make sense, giving way
to the album highlight, the Elvis
and R&B-influenced. “Morning
After Midnight."
And while both songs stand
well on their own and show
case different aspects of Green’s
eclectic songwriting personal
ity, it’s liable to leave the listener
shaking his head and wondering
exactly how Green got from point
A to point B.
It isn’t too much to detract
from the overall appeal of the
album, but there are a few throw
away tracks that could have been
avoided with a bit more economy
in his songwriting.
Or maybe those swing-and
miss moments just further Green’s
image of an awkward-in-love
protagonist who is just charming
enough to merit complete and
repeated listens for the opportu
nity to see exactly what situation
he’ll put his quirky kaleidoscopic
lens on next.
Contact the Diversions Editor
at dive@unc.edu.
STAR SYSTEM
★ poor
★★ FAIR
★★★ GOOD
★ ★★★ EXCELLENT
kkkirk classic
DIVE STAFF
Bryan Reed, Editor
84345291 dive@unc.edu
Jamie Williams, Assistant Editor
Edwin Amaudin, David Bemgartt,
Rachel Brody, Melissa Brown, Jordan
Lawrence, Rachael Oehring, Benn
Wtnefca. Catherine Williams, staff
writers
Abby Jeffers, Design Editor
Cover Desgn Courtney Dean.
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