Gary Dicks - 10/14/2009

Since the release of 'Street Horrrsing', I, like many a Fuck Buttons fan, have been yearning to hear more from them. This may be misleading and suggest that what we heard in 'Street Horrrsing' had potential but wasn't good enough. This was certainly not the case. It was one of those rare records (that are getting rarer with every release) that sounded like something fresh and previously undiscovered. Many of the notions behind their music were not at all fresh but it had that "edge" that oh-so-many music journalists have talked about for so long.

However, that was then and this is now. 'Tarot Sport' is Fuck Buttons' second album to date and is a natural progression in sound. It is still very "them" but is subtly less leftfield and more danceable. This has been widely attributed to the fact that dance DJ Andrew Weatherall produced it, though I think it has been a subconscious decision between the Buttons to steer their noise in this direction. I mean: who wouldn't like their audience to dance to their music?
An organ-player at a funeral maybe... But 'Tarot Sport', as melancholy as the subject matters surrounding some of the tracks may be, is certainly not the funeral march. It's upbeat, aggressive and intelligent, and deserves a place in the CD player of any post-rock, dance or IDM fan.