Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport

I was watching Top Chef: Masters tonight and one of the contestants commented on how “food should be like an Arcade Fire song…layers and layers…it should be like an orchestra” and it sounded pretty well-versed to me. It’s always good to see that music can reach a wide range, even if it is or isn’t because of The Suburbs surprising execution at The Grammys. Either way, it got me to thinking about music and layers; we’ve talked about Arcade Fire many times before but one distinction that some of the best music does have is layers and lots of them.

The style of layering and depiction of it is definitely present in the entire music electronic duo Fuck Buttons put out. Their first album got them an opening slot for Caribou during his 2008 tour and together they stopped at the old/old Club 101 where I first heard their music. Their newest album just came out and is receiving smashing talk as it is definitely one of the best of the year. But many would say it was their 2009 album, Tarot Sport, that truly shined the light on finely composed electronic music, with a pulse.

Bookended by two amazing songs, each of Fuck Buttons albums only have less than seven songs each but most span the ten minute mark as everything is about tension, release and attack. The closing “Flight of the Feathered Serpent” features a tribal-like, trance-like drum beating that is relentless in force. There’s a soaring melody that signifies the feathered serpent in flight as it battles through what sounds like a tumultuous ride. It has heavy doses of drums that are minimal in presentation but indicative of what Fuck Buttons are about: a full-blown assault on the senses. It’s layered within the walls of what is a powerful sound and although the synths and keyboards may not be as important as the actual drums here, it’s very much spectacular.

The opening song, “Surf Solar,” is definitely a piece that is tinged with the spectral touch of space and the atmosphere. It begins with a keyboard that is out of this world and that is both bemoaning an ominous style but mostly, delivering mood. The simple beat comes in before the synthesizer delivers the melody. Before you know it, you’re inside of this thick, densely layered world of bliss: it’s the perfect way to start Tarot Sport. These kinds of ‘orchestrations’ continue throughout the album, for it is what us snobs like to call – in a drastically different shade to something like Mount Kimbie, Bonobo or even, The Avalanches – real electronic music. And it was only a year removed from their first album but in many ways, worlds apart and most of all, a world that is easy to get lost in. (Also, FYI, this song was used as part of the montage for the London Olympics opening ceremony, hell yeah). – Bryan