Halloween is right around the corner! I don’t have anything particularly spoo0oO00Oo0oo0o0oky today, but synthesizer-drenched music definitely reminds me of Halloween, so here’s three of such ilk: Andrew Hung (one half of the experimental drone band Fuck Buttons), Blanck Mass (the other half of the experimental drone band Fuck Buttons), and Perturbator (because Fuck Buttons didn’t put out an album proper this year! Or else it would have been Fuck Buttons).

I miss Fuck Buttons.

Andrew Hung – Devastations
(June 18, 2021)

Andrew Hung’s chief influence is Aphex Twin, but Hung’s solo output strays from the chaotic electronics or the placid ambience of Richard David James’ usual trademarks. Devastations is album full of dance rhythms, complex pop hooks, warm synthesized bleeps and bloops, and emotive expression in every way. It’s definitely not Aphex Twin, but it’s just as colorful.

“Battle”, the first track, feels like familiar territory for a Fuck Buttons fan. It’s a mellow electronic groove with driving forward momentum. Distorted high-pitched vocals makes me think of the band Battles’ early work, but maybe that’s just because the name of the track put it in my head? After “Battle”, the music shifts to a cheesy ’80s synth dance number with “Promises” and I find out that Hung’s British vocals match the music perfectly. He clearly has an affinity for the retro-future, channeling his inner Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, or even James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem.

Each successive track brings with it a facet of Hung’s individuality. It’s clear that this is a very personal record for him, and Hung’s knack for bringing the human aspect out of the cold, alienating characteristics inherent in synthesizer-laden electronica is welcoming. Take “Colour”, which keeps things moving with an oompah accordion groove and shuffling drums. There’s no way that’s a real accordion, right? But it sounds like a real accordion! It’s warm and immersive, like a hot tub. So I’m happy. My favorite is “Space”. Totally schmaltzy lyrics (“Perfection exists in space/That’s why we’re reaching for the staaars!“), but I like the way he belts it out like he really means it. If this were a lyric in a neo-progressive album, it would godawful garbage! Here it works wonders, because Andrew Hung comes across as someone who is remarkably in-tune with himself as a person and himself as an artist, but without an ego or a misguided sense of what makes the music actually resonate in the first place. A great combination!

Anyway, this has all the trappings of an indie rock record from a bygone era. A timeless effort. Bravo. I love it.

Early Verdict:

Blanck Mass – In Ferneaux
(February 25, 2021)

Well, it appears that Andrew Hung has all the pop-sensibility in the Fuck Buttons project, not that I’m complaining about that, necessarily. It’s just that, knowing how Hung and Benjamin John Power work together and what can come from it, an album like In Ferneaux comes across to me as sparse and unengaging. Admittedly, his fifth album as Blanck Mass is my first encounter with Power’s solo work, so Fuck Buttons is my only frame of reference for it at the moment. Comprising two large vinyl side-length collages of experimental drones, noise, and, occasionally, music, In Ferneaux is a challenging listen by anyone’s standards.

Things start off positively with a very Rubycon/Ricochet-era Tangerine Dream synth krautrock exercise that builds into an explosion of bombasic power-synths about 4:30 into “Phase I”. It last about a minute before returning to the original theme, and at this point, we’re already past our peak. The experimental minimalism that follows isn’t particularly compelling; for a couple more minutes it sounds like someone is putting away silverware near a crackling fire during a thunderstorm. Then, if you can believe it, this fades into something that’s even less interesting with a stagnant drone that goes on absolutely far too long. This morphs into a hazy, breathy, optimistic electronic hum that wouldn’t sound out of place during the heartfelt denouement of an ’80s family movie. Then more noise. And that’s “Phase I”.

The transition to “Phase II” is seamless, making the entire record one large single piece. Here, the beginning presents over three minutes of a monologue sample over more electronic droning that takes a while to turn into more flat-out noise and static. It sounds like Merzbow fucked an amplifier while slapping around a Van der Graaff generator before nutting (to use the most flowery language I can muster under the circumstances). Finally, at long last, something somewhat entertaining happens just before the 11-minute mark: yelpin’ and whoopin’ under some loud sticks-on-the-drum’s-edge percussion…but even that turns into more blistering, static-y pandemonium before long. Only in the last few minutes does some melodious, subtley apocalyptic piano break the tension before it’s over.

But really, what tension? Albums like In Ferneaux are frustrating for me because it’s not ambient enough to serve as background music, but it’s not dynamic enough for a full-attention listening experience, let alone multiple full-attention listening experiences. I don’t know what to do with it. It feels like post-rock without any real moments of catharsis or emotional resonance. Maybe more listens are in order…someday.

Early Verdict:

Perturbator – Lustful Sacraments
(May 28, 2021)

And then there’s Perturbator, which is only on this list because Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power haven’t made a Fuck Buttons record in over eight years. SIGH! So here’s an electronic project by James Kent out of Paris, whose background involved playing guitar in several black metal bands and draws his main inspiration from gross cyberpunk anime movies! So that’s unique!

But, more importantly, Perturbator’s Lustful Sacraments is on this list because this type of minimal wave (specifically, darksynth) sounds about as close to Halloween music that you’re going to get without listening to actual Halloween music! And believe you me, Lustful Sacraments is quite a graveyard smash in its own right. It surprises me that this kind of album would get released in May. Who listens to this in May?

I often relegate music like Perturbator’s to the background. After all, this stuff is usually not too dense and demanding of a close listen. Akin to ’90s video game MIDI soundtracks, it’s the perfect mood music for reading or writing. Lustful Sacraments is the first time I gave a darksynth record my undivided attention, and I was surprised at how varied and deceptively intricate the arrangements sounded to my ears. You can do wonders with keyboards and synthesizers; occasionally the drums and the bass effects sound downright organic, son.

A lot of this album leans toward gothic rock/post-punk with some pop elements. “Secret Devotion”, my favorite, has Bauhaus-ian vocals over jaunty John Carpenter dance beats. It could a Eurythmics song.

But, the nagging feeling that this is a novelty still persists. It’s hard to take this all in and extract lasting appeal from it. And, forgive me if you can, but I’m not going to listen to this anymore once Halloween is behind me. Sorry! I’ll bust it out again in October 2022.

Early Verdict: