What happens when noise-rock takes a bold step forward and establishes a melodic palpability? Tarot Sport. The second album from rocketing noise duo Fuck Buttons is a quixotic endeavor expanding the possibilities of what the genre can accomplish with the knife skill of a neurosurgeon and the heart of a kid who grew up on 80’s fantasy movies. Each track is a scene of an album that flows like a vibrant, emotional film.
The opening of “Surf Solar” creates a sense of confusion and discovery that hasn’t been tapped since Mikey and rest of the Goonies found One-Eyed Willie’s ship full of the “rich stuff” in that underground cave somewhere off the coast of Oregon. From here Fuck Buttons’ panoramic accessibility blossoms in a sense that Tarot Sport isn’t only a bold mature step forward for the band, it’s also a more controlled grip on their ability to direct their inner anxieties. Since their last album Street Horrrsing, Fuck Buttons have taken a distortion heavy rampage of noise and reigned it into something less frantic yet more expansively fantastic.
This cinematic fantasy is demonstrated in the album’s seamless transitions. Each track stands on its own while simultaneously possessing the ability to leap into the next with exuberant clarity. When the snare heavy march-inducing “The Libson Maru” passionately bleeds into the album’s most epic, sonorous track “Olympians” Fuck Buttons achieve the noise-rock equivalent of a Saturn Award. Throughout the album, keyboard/ synth layers and delayed samples don’t necessarily stack on each other but rather coalesce into a triumphant atmosphere of expansion and exploration.
Tarot Sport is focused and meticulous without seeming so. It’s a carefully crafted piece of art that reflects our bitter, confused, lost sense of the times. In the darkest of days, we humans have a tendency to live inside the sensational landscapes we’ve created in order to distract ourselves from the almost dystopian reality that surrounds. Tarot Sport is a near perfect manifestation of this and quite possibly the most eloquent and well-constructed emotional noise-art experiment in recent times.
by: Bene Garcia
