thevoid99's Full Review: Tarot Sport [Digipak] * by Fuck Buttons
Following the release of 2008's debut album Street Horrrsing, the Bristol electronic group F*ck Buttons were now getting attention of the music press. Consisting of Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power, the group's take on electronic drones and experimental music style has captured the attention of a lot of people in the electronic music scene. Among them was Andrew Weatherall, the renowned DJ and producer who was responsible for co-producing the 1991 seminal album Screamadelica by Primal Scream. Weatherall's interest in F*ck Buttons was so big that he remixed a track on a single for them that led to a collaboration on the group's second album entitled Tarot Sport.
Produced by Andrew Weatherall with songs by F*ck Buttons. Tarot Sport is a continuation of sorts on the experimental textures of Street Horrrsing. Featuring Weatherall's world of dance music, the record broadens the sound of the band as they shape their experimental brand of electronic drone with more elements of ambient, shoegaze, post-rock, and other styles. The result isn't just a real breakthrough for the group but also one of the most inventive albums of the year.
The leading single and opening track is Surf Solar, a ten-minute, thirty-five second suite. With swirling sounds of chime-like synthesizer flourishes and sounds of more shimmering synthesizer scratches. The track also featured distorted vocal speeches that is in the background as a thumping beat emerges with bleeping synthesizer melodies and scratchy vocal tracks. Chainsaw-laden guitar drones appear to accompany the layers of electronics that swirl through along with warbling beats. Rough Steez, the shortest track on the album at four-minute and forty-four seconds, is a bass-drone driven track with fuzzy bass lines and warbled beats that play through. Featuring bouncy, hollow beats and distorted percussive tracks with wavy guitar swirls, it's a track that revels in its noisy presentation and unconventional take on distorted electronic music.
The Lisbon Maru is an ambient-driven track with soothing, swirling synthesizers and soft, chugging beats. When the beats become more rhythmic in a thumping track, it becomes an ambient-dance track with looped buzzes in the mix as a soft, cadence drum fill appear to play along with the soothing synthesizer track and a droning guitar track. The near-eleven minute Olympians is the longest track on the album as it is another ambient-inspired cut. With shimmering synthesizer melodies playing through along with a soothing synthesizer track as thumping beats emerge to add atmosphere to the track. A wailing keyboard track emerges with droning guitar buzzes as melodic-swooning synthesizers appear along with bouncy beats later on. With Weatherall's superbly rich, layered production, it is the highlight of the album.
Phantom Limb is led by fast, scratchy electronic warbles with fast-paced beats and synthesizers as hollow, bass-laden beats and swirling electronic textures take hold. Featuring Weatherall's hypnotic production and arrangements of synthesizers layers, it's another winning track from the group. Space Mountain is led by fast-paced synthesizer flourishes and rumbling beats that is followed by soothing keyboards and wailing guitar drones as the track intensifies in its eight-minute, forty-five second running time. The last track is the nine-and-a-half minute Flight Of The Feathered Serpent. With a rollicking rhythm, thumping beats, and soothing synthesizers that is followed by wailing guitars. It's an outstanding suite that includes melodic synthesizer shimmers and chainsaw-laden guitar drones that is later followed by sputtering beats and buzzing guitars as it closes the album with grace and beauty.
Tarot Sport is a phenomenal album from F*ck Buttons with additional credit going to Andrew Weatherall for his superb, enriching production. Fans of the first album will definitely be amazed in what the duo could do in creating evocative and imaginative pieces that truly push the boundaries of electronic music. For audiences that is interested in ambient-dance and other forms of experimental electronic music will definitely enjoy this as it's truly a mesmerizing album from start to finish. Tarot Sport is truly an inventive album from F*ck Buttons that takes the listener on a strange, ethereal trance.
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