Oh this is so good. This is so, so, so good. I’ll admit that I had wilfully avoided Fuck Buttons up to this point, partially due to the decidedly average name, and partially due to the fact that the entire idea of ‘noise’ as a genre makes me break out in hives. It’s kinda like my attitude to math rock – I can appreciate the art behind it, but when listening to it I am always faced with the burning question: when would I ever play this album for my own enjoyment? Noise-wise, everybody lost their shit for HEALTH recently, but I always found them a bit too fuzzed out, a bit too ragged to really enjoy; I could never properly settle in to what they were trying to do. Which is all part of the point, I guess, but that doesn’t necessarily make for a pleasurable aural experience. And from what I can understand, Fuck Buttons’ debut album, the critically lauded ‘Street Horrrsing’, was a bit more in this vein, albeit with a semblance of melodic overlays that have become their hallmark. Well, at least their hallmark within the noise scene; this shit ain’t Bach.

But now we have their sophomore effort, the cryptically titled ‘Tarot Sport’, and goddamn if they haven’t turned it on for this release. While a certain ‘noise’-iness still pervades the seven tracks on the album, the melodic drive has leapt to the fore, guiding the tunes through a stunning midpoint between the jagged, soaring electronica of ‘Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts’-era M83 and the relentless builds and sprawling climaxes of Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky. The triumphal key changes beloved of so much dance music charge most of the offerings on the album, but they’re buffeted on every side by arching waves of folded feedback and heavy, rolling drum lines. ‘Tarot Sport’ is essentially split into five songs that fit that profile, mingled with a couple of shorter offerings that show off the band’s more abrasive side. Not that these tracks are in any way bad, but when thrown up against the monument of the other set pieces on the record, they seem to pale into insignificance. All in all, quite amazing.

But enough rapturous description, here be music. I’ve attached penultimate track ‘Space Mountain’ for your perusal today. It pretty much does everything I’ve already alluded too but, potentially, better. It begins with drums pounding and echoing across the track, while an array of sharp, pulsing synths oscillate and shimmer over the top. Then, bar by bar, new drums, new synths and new progressions get steadily added in, before a bending, distorted guitar enters the mix after a couple of minutes, steadily blanketing everything in an almost overwhelming cloud of ragged noise. And then finally, exultantly, a dimly perceived high-end drops in at the five minute mark and goddamn if I didn’t nearly start crying when I first heard it. Shit was visceral. May I recommend listening to this very, very loud on a good set of headphones. Such is the nature of the track that you just want to keep on turning the volume up and up to try and fully understand what’s going on underneath it all. Which, at its best, is probably the miracle of noise. And this, I think, is noise at its best. Anyway, I provide this track with my highest recommendation. Enjoy.

Fuck Buttons – Space Mountain

This song pretty much shot them to the upper echelons of my ‘must see live’ list. So great. ‘Tarot Sport’ is out now. Buy it. If you like this track, when stacked up alongside everything else on the album it becomes truly magnificent.

-luke