Who are they?
Bristol’s Andrew Hung and Ben Power formed the experimental electronic act Fuck Buttons in early 2004 and quickly earned a rep for their intense, engaging and loud live shows. The All Tomorrow’s Parties festival–affiliated label ATP Recordings snapped ’em up in 2007, unleashing the duo’s epic first single, “Bright Tomorrow,” soon after. The Buttons’ 2008 debut album, Street Horrrsing, was met with a wall of praise as sources as diverse as Mojo, Pitchfork, SPIN and XLR8R turned out gushing collections of adjectives. Their new LP, Tarot Sport, produced by legendary dance music figure Andrew Weatherall, is an enthralling listening experience.

Hung’s a little bit dancey, Power’s a little bit punk ’n’ roll
“Our musical backgrounds definitely contributed to the aesthetic of our music, but the collaboration goes a bit further than that,” Hung tells me via cellphone while the duo drive to their next American show. “The dynamic of our relationship is very healthy; we tour pretty much in each other’s pockets and we get on extremely well. There was definitely always an ease to the way we worked.”

Was it just being comfortable, or do they have a telepathic link?

“We might talk about a track once we’ve made it, but we don’t talk about it beforehand,” Hung says. “We enter into the creative process with no structures, intentions or specific ideas. We just start working and the song carries us towards the goal.”

“Andy and I write music together in a room — nobody else is present — and that’s always the way that we’ve worked,” adds Power. “We make the music that we want to hear ourselves.”

None of the same
“I think the only thing that we were conscious of in making Tarot Sport was to not repeat the previous album,” Hung insists. One listen to each album makes it clear that they succeeded. While links can be made between Street Horrrsing songs like “Bright Tomorrow” and “Sweet Love For Planet Earth” and parts of Tarot Sport, the new release is both clearer and more complex. Weatherall — who spearheaded the merger of indie and electronics while producing Primal Scream’s early work and forming projects including Two Lone Swordsmen and Sabres of Paradise — was enlisted for production duties after turning out a gorgeous remix of “Sweet Love….”

Hung enthuses, “We thought the remix showed a great sensitivity to the material while at the same time pushing it in a direction that it could have gone in, and did that very successfully. He was very considerate, but had a very strong mindset, which is an excellent balance and why we wanted to work with him.”

“We’d already written everything before we actually went in to the studio, so Andrew’s job was mainly the embellishment of the sound,” clarifies Power. “One thing we really did learn when we were in the studio with him was the importance of space, even if it’s just five minutes away from the project you’re working on. When you come back and listen again, you have a much more clear perspective. That definitely helped us not overcrowd what was going on.”

Overcrowded, no; trippy and textured, yes
“Street Horrrsing was a lot more simplified and I think that’s why there’s a singularity to the components themselves,” Hung ventures. “Tarot Sport has a lot of nuances…. If anything, it’s a much more complex beast while still sounding more unified.”

What’s the most amusing alternative moniker they’ve encountered?
While ‘F Buttons’ is the most common of polite abbreviations, Power does recall one special take on their name.

“Somebody made a mistake on the posters and tickets once. They referred to us as Fuck Bottoms, you know, because that’s obviously not nearly as absurd,” he chuckles. “There’s definitely some kind of reference you could take away from that, but I don’t know you well enough, so we won’t go into it right now.”