In last year's Street Horrrsing, Fuck Buttons made one of the most visceral albums of recent times, creating a very particular world of abstract noises, loud guitar drones full of reverb and, of course, those very own and quite-scary maniac growls. It was something intense and truly hypnotic, but not too dependent on any particular notion of high-technology and mechanical rhythms, a fact that made it sound more organic and, ultimately, unique. But then there was an exception to this, in the techno beats of Bright Tomorrow, which incidentally turned out to be the most visible (and best, IMO) track of that record. With their sophomore Tarot Sport, it's like they have grabbed the concept of that particular song, multiplied it by a hundred, and expanded it into a whole album. Recruiting Andrew Weatherall (one of the most respected dancefloor producers in the last 15 years) is probably to be blamed for this, but the fact is that it does work. Really well. Hallucinating doesn't even begin to describe the experience of hearing what's in here: layers of dynamic sounds, sometimes brutal, other times overwhelming, put together on top of very powerful beats, in 7 songs that flow with an unstoppable and euphoric force. True, sometimes it does get to such an extreme point that we end up feeling like we're having too much of a good thing. But the fact is that it never stops being a rewarding experience... at full speed, a continuous high, literally like there's no tomorrow. (8/10)
Fuck Buttons - Surf Solar (video)
www.myspace.com/fuckbuttons
3 comments:
hello again !
i should give it another try myself. i listened to the album once, i didn't really like it, but not completely disliked it, and i deleted it from my computer. probably because i had around ten new albums at that moment and i was anxious to go through all and see which are to keep and which not. or maybe i've come to a point in which i usually know from the first listening if the album has potential of becoming a favourite. and this one didn't. but you convinced me.
as for andrew weatherall, i just missed seeing him mix in a club in bucharest on friday night. i was out of town, otherwise i would've been there.
one album that i enjoy listening these days is Sebastien Schuller's "Evenfall". not very different from his first album, which was a revelation for me a few years ago. i feel this one like a refreshment of those moods and it's definitely welcome.
stefan
Hi Stefan!
It's funny, i'm having that same problem myself, there are more than 15 new albums currently sitting in my hard-disk, waiting to be listened to. Mew, Bleak>, Annie, A Sunny Day In Glasgow, Washed Out, Mumford & Sons, Local Natives, Lake Heartbeat... any special recommendation on these?
Thanks for the Sebastien Schuller tip, I'll definitely search for it.
Best,
Pedro
too much to grasp :) sometimes, the continuous avalanche of (good) music intimidates me and makes me reluctant to trying anything new. i don't want to treat superficially albums that deserve much more only because there are others on the waiting list. of course, this only lasts a few days and then i'm ready for more music.
sometimes i miss the times in which the only source of music was buying cd's, which didn't happen every day, and i was waiting months to find an album and then listening to it until i knew every sound and inflection of voice.
now, when it's so easy to have it all (although i still buy cd's sometimes), much is gained, but also some is lost.
the last album which i refused to download and listen to until i had the actual original cd in hand was sigur ros's "med sud i eyrum..."
except for mew (from which i have 2 albums, but not the new one), i don't know any of the bands you mention here, so i can't make any recommendation.
this is another irony for today's music lovers, i guess. which puzzles me. i discover new artists all the time and yet, when someone with almost similar tastes tells me about this and that, there's so many names i never heard of...
so there's much digging to do... haha !
hugs,
stefan
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