#2 Album for 2009: Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport (ATP Recordings)

it’s been a long time since i had a strong emotional reaction to sheer sound. we’d have to bring it back to the halcyon days of mogwai which were about 10 years ago (yikes).  fuck buttons work with strong contrasts: earthbound, simplistic percussion against stratospheric, beatific synth noise; the beauty of sturdy postrock melodies against the violence that the band’s basic menu of sounds suggests.  the result is one of the year’s most powerful, overwhelming albums, something that still has me a little bit in awe when i think about it and brought about one of my favorite written descriptions of music ever. “surf solar,” in my opinion, is the vital track from this one.  it’s too big to embed in tumblr at any quality so use the youtube above.  but if i can be a pedant this is the exact type of music that suffers at low quality, do yrself a favor and buy a physical copy or at least a really good file.