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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.
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Tarot Sport doesn't pause to bang or whimper. Tarot Sport accelerates.
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90"Street Horrrsing" was a great record, but Tarot Sport is a cut above. Perhaps surprisingly, it's also a welcoming album--and one of the best of this already fruitful year.
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90Tarot Sport goes far beyond it's sonically daunting reaches and succeeds at being a deeply emotional experience.
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90And 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.
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86While the celestial exploration is briefly juxtaposed with sci-fi experimentation on the Autechre-like 'Rough Steez' and 'Phantom Limb,' those detours only here to provide respite from and not actually disrupt an ultimately delightful, delirious headtrip designed to push your fuckest of buttons.
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The album as a whole, though uneasy listening, is big, powerful, and often overwhelming.
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Whereas Mogwai's more recent work threatens to make a formula familiar, Fuck Buttons' fizzling DIY laboratory still has the invention and ingenuity to surprise.
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80As much U2, New Order and Jan Hammer as they are The Field, Harmonia and Black Dice, ultimately F*ck Buttons are in a league of their own--and with Tarot Sport, they just bettered themselves.
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80If "Street Horrsing" was a bit of a lark, then Tarot Sport plays an altogether more serious game. [Nov 2009, p.92]
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80Andrew Weatherall has been employed to help build Tarot Sport a beaty backbone and the results are brutally mesmerizing. [Nov 2009, p. 88]
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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.
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80With 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. [Nov 2009, p.106]
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80Fuck Buttons have less in common with the overly cerebral noise boffins they're compared to and more with the likes of Ennio Morricone: sonic explorers mapping out the landscape's emotional terrain, albeit one that exists in some far-off galaxy.
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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.
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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.
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78Tarot Sport's tunes don't really explode so much as they unfurl into synthetic washes of digital soundtracking that undulate with electricity before elvolving into narcotic beat castles. [Holiday 2009, p.99]
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70There are, however, 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.
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Tarot Sport is an act of patience that pays back the time you actively spend with it. [Fall 2009, p.58]
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60The album definitely has its moments, and the first half is very engaging, but they lose it in the long run.
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The main problem with Tarot Sport is that it sometimes seems to be trying too hard, building drama into repetitive riffs by sheer force, urging greater and greater effort on listeners who are already a bit out of breath.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 19 out of 22
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Mixed: 0 out of 22
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Negative: 3 out of 22
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CH10Just amazing stuff...really bringing drone back into the discussion when it comes to electronica genres. Great.
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CurtisB9Excellently recorded. Carefully crafted. Beautiful symphonies of noise.
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KendoJ10Raw, unrefined, genius. Absolutely brilliant.