Tarot Sport

Wow, this album is brilliant. Surf Solar kicks off and sets the standard for the rest of the album - almost 2 minutes of ethreal, spaced out bliss before a deep base drum comes in and is followed by a wall of melodic noise that doesn't hold up for the next hour. Rough Steez introduces aphex twin style tweaks and twiddles, and if you heard the base in a club it would hit you in the very pit of your stomach. The Lisbon Maru is a beautiful, building kaleidoscope, which melts seamlessly into Olymplans. Like most other tracks on the album both are close to ten minutes long - these boys don't like to rush things. Phantom Limb gets industrial, and Space Mountain sounds like it could be beaten out by an African tribe. The album closes with Flight of the Feathered Serpent, probably the best of a very good collection of tunes. Just as you think it is wrapping up at the end with some very Underworld-like basedrums, so the Buttons bring back the hair-on-the-back-of-your-neck harmonies that started the piece.

This is certainly not trance, in fact it's difficult to shoehorn into one category. But that's part of its originality and part of its brilliance. Just buy it.

If this album consisted of only one track and that track was "Olympians" then it would blow most other bands off the planet. Luckily the whole being the sum of the parts "Tarot Sports" is much bigger beast than that. It is easily the best electronic album since "Autobahn" or D J Shadow did the final take on the titanic "Entroducing" and sent it off to the record company.

This is the sound of modern music being re-invented. The sheer volume and magnitude of the sound created by the F Buttons is mind boggling. The shimmering synths, weirdly euphoric melodies, the Spectorish production that concentrates on raw power and the emotion invested in this music makes you feel ever so humble.

Q magazine accurately and eloquently stated that "The seven tracks clatter and surge with gleeful, filthy distortion as waves of squall are layered like the sonic booms of multiple jet engines."

This Bristol duo of Andrew Hung and Benjamin Power are pretty uncompromising and have clearly drawn from those other giants of that city namely Massive Attack. Many of the tracks build slowly and clock nearly ten minutes. In addition the adoption of the bands name is hardly designed to get them on the Christmas edition of Top of the Pops.

Its a cliche but there is not a bad track on the album. In addition to Olympians I particularly love the dense and edgy "Rough Steez" which clocking in at just less than 5 minutes is one of the shorter tracks. Both "Space Mountain" and the "Lisbon Maru" feel vast and repay constant listening as new sounds emerge and nuances appear.

I played both "Surf Solar" and "Flight of the Feathered serpent" in my car I thought the doors were going to fall off while and I could barely see through the back window since it was vibrating that much. And that's the point. This is euphoric music designed to be played loud and by the end of it you slump exhausted knowing that you have heard an album of such surging power that not much else stands comparisons to it. The FBs are unique they make the Chemical Brothers and Orbital sound tame and dated. This is only their second album and frankly if it is possible to record a better electronic, hypnotic and ambient album than this then I would like to know how.

I was lucky enough to be introduced to FB at a live performance (thanks Mogwai!) and was initially bemused by the chimp-like antics and heavily distorted budget synths, a feeling that was quickly replaced by a sense of wonder at their enthusiastic and shameless brilliance. I quickly got my copy of "Street Horrrsing" and loved it.

"Tarot Sport" seems to me to be a natural progression on "Horrrsing", a more considered and dare I say mature work, equally as consistent as "Horrrsing" but with a smoother and more refined feel. Gone are the distorted vocals to be replaced by almost lush textures.

I guess it's all a matter of taste, but there's something undeniably wonderful, optimistic and honest about Tarot Sport. Enjoy.