News / / 29.04.14

Bleep10: Fuck Buttons + Mount Kimbie

Barbican, London | 25 April

As the torch wielding steward directs us towards our seats, simultaneously burning the retinas off a twee teenage couple in row 58, Barbican Hall stirs with anticipation for celebrations marking 10 years of wheeling and dealing for the independent online music store Bleep.

Mount Kimbie are two songs into an hour-long set, backed by a full live band and flanked either side by towering projections of rippling water – visuals are clearly a heavy feature in what promises to be an atmospheric spectacle of exploratory electronic music. Smoke bellows to the tune of Before I Move Off and rolls over the audience giving the impression of a futuristic 4D cinema screening of Blade Runner. It’s a little strange hearing music associated with the shuffling of feet and spilt pints of Croatian larger from a seated position, but if anything it outlines the performance. No one’s worrying about how well they’re dancing. MK’s live recreations are captivating and laced with confidence, filling the cavernous space of the Barbican well, but the melodic weight of their studio material is at times lost in translation due to patchy mixing of the dozen or so instrumental components.

The end of the duo’s slot signals a 45 minute interval – a chance to blow a week’s wages on a gin and tonic and for the stage to be overhauled in time for Fuck Buttons’ arrival. When we sit back at our seats, one track into their set, the atmosphere is altogether different. The pair stand opposite one another, a vast clump of analogue gear separating them with a giant screen alight with whirling landscapes and colour. The weighted screech of blurry synthesizers is cut apart by fuzzed out kick drums and nightmarish soundscapes. It’s a breakneck, breakbeat exploration of atmospheres and sounds. The projected visuals slowly become more intense and the pair’s silhouettes cut through abstract home video footage.

For the older generation in the audience it’s a straight nostalgia trip back to the dew soaked days of the 90s. Those who didn’t have their first beer till 2006 are lucky enough to have already experienced a Matrix-style, digital crash course in past musical boiling points thanks to the information superhighway at their fingertips. The result is a blanketed release of serotonin and butterflies in stomachs.

Without saying a word Fuck Buttons have pulled the majority in attendance to their feet and even to the front of the stage. A standing ovation greats the lull in intensity and each of us look at each other with open mouthed giddiness – aside from the twee teenage couple in row 58, who are flicking through their Instagram and talking about their twee friends.

 

– – – – – – – – – – –

bleep10.com

Words: Charlie Wood

CONNECT TO CRACK