It's an utterly refreshing sound, one that's destined for crossover success - if not now, then surely retroactively. If the unseen alien race in 2001: A Space Odyssey had been thoughtful enough to equip the monoliths with MP3 players, Tarot Sport would've been the album preloaded with it.
For most of the songs amassed here, it still takes around 10 minutes to get the job done—threading those thick synthesizer blasts and all that skittering digital manna through a brick wall of guitar fuzz—but Fuck Buttons succeeds at turning its unpredictable epics into masterpieces of pacing and strange beauty.
Tarot Sport doesn’t pause to bang or whimper. Tarot Sport accelerates.
Tarot Sport is not better nor worse than Street Horrrsing. It’s just another example that Fuck Buttons is more than just a musical substitute/addition for illegal hallucinogenic substances or refreshing innovators of the noise genre. Fuck Buttons is a musical catharsis without equivalent.
Such are the music's joyous highs, subtle thrills and rich and deep layers, they can undoubtedly be judged one of the most worthwhile and special bands currently at large.
On their sophomore album, Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power have carved some holes in the abrasive, percussive wall of sound that made Street Horrrsing at once memorable and difficult, and they’ve patched things up with atmospheric samples ... that sound downright triumphant.
Tarot Sport is weird, dark, psychedelic, unlike any techno you may have heard before, but also deliriously enjoyable, transmitting all the sweaty energy of their live gigs.
The listening experience is exponentially easier than that of 2008’s Street Horrrsing, a change that may alienate die-hards in search of a new challenge, but one that will ultimately widen this avant duo’s fan base.
If Street Horrsing was a bit of a lark, then Tarot Sport plays an altogether more serious game.
Andrew Weatherall has been employed to help build Tarot Sport a beaty backbone and the results are brutally mesmerizing.
Tarot Sport makes its mark: easy and challenging at the same time, a mix of harsh and smooth sounds that mirrors the prickly juxtaposition of classic jazz.
With Tarot Sport, Fuck Buttons have made a career-defining album that will resonate with anyone who has ever spent a night with their head in the speaker stacks and gone home marvelling at the ringing in their ears.
Tarot Sport allows us to look at techno as the emblem of a populist experimental art, one that is open to new ideas but can connect viscerally with its audience at the same time.
A more hypnotic and lulling ride overall, Tarot Sport may lack some of Street Horrrsing's pure visceral impact, but it's just as satisfying on its own terms, as well as an impressive step forward for Fuck Buttons.
For about an hour, if you can allow Fuck Buttons to control your responses, to embrace the clusterfuck of noise and emotion, then Tarot Sport might be one of the strongest albums of this year.
There are ... occasional stumbles that suggest that some lessons cannot be learned quickly, and that melody is an essential component of their sound that needs more attention. For now, though, this is much better.
Tarot Sport is an act of patience that pays back the time you actively spend with it.
"I'm sorry Godspeed You Black Emperor, your shit is good, but Surf Solar's Fuck Buttons is one of the best ten minutes song of all time, OF ALL TIME!!!! " shouted a young fucked up man, probably a Pitchfork guy.
And he's not really wrong. Because listening to these ten delicious minutes where the rise is a priesthood, where the wall of sound is a commandment... we couldn't describe better this "Surf Solar" which introduces the 2nd album of the Fuck Buttons. Of course it was ... read more
Fuck Buttons #2: Esperanza, sueño, el despertar luego del sufrimiento. 6:45 P.M.
(84 to 100, wow)
De un 84 a un 100, de un rating promedio a un rating perfecto, ¿Qué pasó aquí? ¿Cuándo esto se volvió una bestia musical completamente increíble?
Bueno, es una historia personal, un poco analítica, y sin duda, bastante gloriosa, ya que considero a este disco como la mejor obra que he escuchado en el mundo de la ... read more
This is the tutorial on how to layer music. However, could've achieved the same result in less time.
the noisy synths blend well with the emotional melodies, creating an extremely intense listen. It requires commitment, but its a rewarding listen
1 | Surf Solar 10:34 | 87 |
2 | Rough Steez 4:44 | 74 |
3 | The Lisbon Maru 9:19 | 92 |
4 | Olympians 10:54 | 93 |
5 | Phantom Limb 4:49 | 73 |
6 | Space Mountain 8:44 | 85 |
7 | Flight of the Feathered Serpent 9:31 | 90 |
#2 | / | Clash |
#2 | / | musicOMH |
#5 | / | Drowned in Sound |
#5 | / | The Line of Best Fit |
#8 | / | MOJO |
#8 | / | NME |
#9 | / | musicOMH |
#11 | / | Pitchfork |
#11 | / | Resident Advisor |
#21 | / | PopMatters |