| Fuck Buttons--Tarot Sport |
| Written by Neel Patel |
|
The highly anticipated sophomore album from Fuck Buttons reaches new heights. Neel Patel breaks it down. The first album by the experimental noise duo, Street Horrrsing, was a great album, creating a sound that used only simple elements yet resulted in a dense atmosphere that combined dreamy, electronic sequences and melodies with abrasive and nihilistic noise rock. Unfortunately, while the overall sound was something new and exciting, each track sounded too much like the track before it. Sounds and ideas were constantly repeated, and as the album went on, tracks would feel more like rearrangements of each other than wholly original songs.Tarot Sport is the work of a band maturing their sound and seeking to use new ideas. Every track sounds different and uses a fresh new set of ideas, and all the while the album stays cohesive and linked. There isn’t a single boring or throwaway song on Tarot Sport. It is warmer and more electronic, yet lavished in new experiments in both melody and noise. The opening track “Surfer Solar” immediately gives you an idea of what direction Fuck Buttons is going to take on this album. The song sounds like a successor to Street Horrrsing’s “Bright Tomorrow”, yet “Surfer Solar” is so much more audacious and grand. The complex hook of the beat is what is first noticeable, and stands in stark contrast to the simple beats of the first album. “Surfer Solar” starts up not softly, but epically, creating a melody drenched in noise that never stands still. Gone are the fierce screeches of wailing guitars, replaced instead by what seems to be an entirely electronic palette of sounds. This is the new direction of Fuck Buttons: taking their songs to new, ambitious heights. Moving into “Rough Steez”, the album continues to showcase a beat-driven versatility. The majestic “Lisbon Maru” seems to take inspiration in old shoegazer influences, especially in Slowdive. “Phantom Limb” is trippy and sports a variety of different electronic noises and sounds. “Space Mountain” seems like an homage to space rock using epic guitar chords. Closer “Flight Of The Feathered Serpent” is the fastest track, and rushes the listener through a charged beat mixed in with shoegazer-like distortion. Fourth track “Olympians”, however, is probably the best song on Tarot Sport. It is spacey and more electronic than any other song, yet is heroic and bold and comes off like a summation of what this album is trying to achieve. Fuck Buttons is still relatively young, yet they seem to be the band that will never be content with their current sound. Noise rock enthusiasts will obviously be addicted to this album, but it should also translate well to people hesitant to embrace something experimental. |
