Fuck Buttons – tarot sport
[ATPR, 2009]
genre: experimental, drone, electronica, post-rock, noise
Album review by Goresonic
The duo from Bristol, UK strikes again one year after the fantastic “Street Horrrsing”. This time the album’s title is “tarot sport” and if someone liked them from their previous album he will going to love them with this one.
Their success allows them to feel free and introduce more noise electronica in their music. From the opening song “Surf Solar”, Fuck Buttons start their travel to their noisy sound. It’s not an experimental electronic album it’s post electronic album, full of noisy compositions. They seem more confident and ready to show their real music, their real talent.
The album sounds really autumnal. I believe that they decide to issue it the perfect time. The depression atmosphere that is produced is transmitted directly to the listener. It’s fucking raining outside and you want to enjoy it with a cup of coffee in your house, watching the rain from the window. Then the rain stops and the rainbow appears. Enjoy it with “Phantom Limp”!
Fuck buttons are fucking amazing. If their mood attracts you, you will easily fall in love with them. I already am.
The album:
Fuck Buttons – tarot sport
rapidshare
links
http://www.myspace.com/fuckbuttons
http://www.fuckbuttons.co.uk/
tracks
1. “Surf Solar” – 10:34
2. “Rough Steez” – 4:44
3. “The Lisbon Maru” – 9:19
4. “Olympians” – 10:54
5. “Phantom Limb” – 4:49
6. “Space Mountain” – 8:44
7. “Flight of the Feathered Serpent” – 9:31
Goresonic
This is the debut album for this Polish band. The band is the brainchild of the duo Michal Sliwa and Jarek Lesklewicz, who perform all instruments, samples and production. They perform really well and their metal is quite experimental. Their mood is dark, experimental and doomy. Their music is really interesting and I found some special and really inspired sounds inside their compositions. This album is ambitious and this band is promising. The music is full of ambient soundscapes and there is a fantastic drone atmosphere. This band is trying to go forward and the atmosphere is dark like the most of these kind of artists but its much more creative than others so it makes the 76 minutes pass really easy. The release is in 500 copies limited CD digipack edition. Their sound is psychedelic, I can’t really describe it as a metal release, but the doom metal and drone metal influence is the strongest around. The album mastered by James PLotkin (Isis, Khanate, Pelican). Fantastic fresh and influenced modern kind of slow metal. Try to listen to this band and found out this release to buy it. I can say this album is one of the best among the others in this experimental and modern kind of drone doom metal. Fantastic sounds, I said that again but there are fantastic sounds spreading around the album. Fantastic point of view, Releases of a great combination between metal and ambient sounds. I am proud of them. 
I think this is the sixth time I wrote for this band only this year (2009). And this is the 8th or the 9th release of them for 2009. What else to say, collaborations, compilations, live, old covers, full length albums, 12”inch, EP, remixes and singles. Here are all the other 2009 nadja posts of this blog: 
Caïna is a one-man band, from Hampshire/Sussex. Stylistically, it draws from genres as disparate as black and post metal, drone, doom, shoegaze, neofolk and post-rock. 
20 Buck Spin’s press release statement said : “The idea for a collaboration between Canada’s prolific neo-doom duo Nadja (
This release includes a remaking/reworking of some of Aidan Baker’s solo works. Actually is a kind of cover’s in older songs of him. The release is limited in 500 copies. I think Nadja is the only band that can cover their songs… it is clever and quite interesting. The atmosphere of all the remakes is under a strong and heavy drone sound. Recommended only to fans. Great atmospheric drone doom tracks, under a dark and doom ambient soundscape. I do not have more to say, it is one of the 8 2009 releases of the band:
As the press release info says: “Sharing a similarly bleak ground to Corrupted, Sunn 0))) and Earth, New Zealand’s Black Boned Angel return with their fourth full length album ‘Verdun’, and perhaps their most sombre and fully-realised work to date.” This is Campbell Kneale’s drone metal project. I am a fan of Birchville cat motel -the other solo project of him-and I was really expecting this one. The result is fantastic, an awesome dark ambient masterpiece and a drone doom metal fuss. This man is creating really progressive music, his noise is unreachable, his mind is genius and this album is again one of the best ever drone metal releases and maybe one of the most inspirational ever dark ambient(under huge noise passages) albums…. It is like a battle!
This 12inch vinyl recorded after Nadja moved to Germany. The record which was recorded in Berlin, with artwork done by a Swedish living in Berlin ( www.hlg.se ) , on two Berlin based labels ( adagio830 & vednetta ) is in front of us. ‘Clinging to the Edge of the Sky’ is not the usual Nadja record.
After 4 full length releases : ‘Elaborations of Carbon’ 2002, ‘Catharsis’ 2003, ‘The Illusion of Motion’ 2004, ‘The Unreal Never Lived’ 2005 and a split up back to 2006, YOB are back with a great and a quite heavy release!! The vocalist Mike created Middian when they split up YOB, but now he reformed his old band and they had a great release. The Great Cessation is the album that connects traditional old school doom metal with drone doom and modern noise metal. This sludgy metal profile is the first time that YOB adopts it. They left back stoner sounds and transform them to sludge and drone metal. I think the old releases of them are cleaner and more youthful. This one is darker, noisier, a bit more mature and heavy more than ever before. Here is the dilemma, I think a lot of people who used to love old Yob will find the new album a bit experimental and not so traditional and pure as before, but the most of the fans and the new comers will appreciate this try and will understand the advance and the progress of the band. You will find excellent sounds and great compositions in this album. A good CD for the summer!!
Greymachine is a projet of Justin Broadrick (Jesu, Final, Godflesh) in collaboration with Dave Cochrane (Head Of David, God, Ice), Diarmuid Dalton (Jesu, Godflesh) and Aaron Turner (Isis). Again and again Justin reviewed in this blog. I can’t understand where this guy find time for all these superbands and all the projects and collaborations he is a part of. Anyway this record is a super wow record. Broadrick is back to his lovely experimental but noisy shit. This sound is brilliant; this is what he can do. This band could be awesome. The album is the origin of ambient metal, this is the definition of noisy sludge, this is experimental shoegaze, no one can play this kind of noisy drone metal. This is a mix of rock, electronica, noise and metal. My head is exploded. Fantastic drone noise, excellent FX, awesome soundscapes, interesting hardcore drums, dirty guitars, never ending distortions, fantastic minds, great harsh vocals (Aaron). I can’t say anything else, if you like ambient metal, if you miss the Angelic Process and Overmars, if you like Earth, Grouper, Nadja, Tribes of Neurot and Tim Hecker, if you appreciate old Godflessh and original Jesu and if you try to remember and put in your mind bands like Fear Falls Burning, Troum, Black Boned Angel, Burning Star Core and Birchville Cat Motel under a Khanate or an Isis prism then you have this super album. This project is Einstürzende Neubauten of sludge, it is Yellow Swans and Noxagt of metal, This is a scream, this is truly loud. This is post, this is modern, this is meta music under no illusions, behind hallucinations and in front of its time, this sound is progressive. I think this album could be the spot of the year! It’s an industrial noisy atmospheric doomy music. FANTASTIC
As I read from Justin’s blog: “Full album length song ‘Infinity’ on Avalanche Recordings (AREC017), written, recorded and mixed early 2009, with all instruments by Justin K Broadrick. ‘Infinity’ is the most expansive and organic jesu release to date, here JKB revisits his roots of heavy guitar driven music yet still retaining the ethereal atomsphere / soundscape of modern jesu.” Again a heavy Jesu release, a dark atmosphere and a strong music dimension. As I already said many times before 
Master Musicians of Bukkake is an experimental project of 7 people. two of them are members of Earth and the others have members/collaborators of Sun City Girls, Sunn O))), Secret Chiefs 3 , Boris and Grails. Their music is an experimental psychedelic trip over guitars, crazy strings and percussion. Their name reminds or brings in mind porno practices and extreme sex habits. Bukkake is a practice that has to do with ejaculation and drinking!!! Anyway, a great respect to these crazy minds that pick up this name for the band. This album is the first out of a trilogy they are going to release. Avant garde progressive music. Try it.
I loved this project years ago with the album 
Noisy atmospheric black metal. Harsh background vocals, dark production, distortions and dark ambient atmospheres.
Do you like drone music or modern psychedelic? Do you like bands like Natural Snow Building, Growing, Earth and Wooden Wand? Do you like cold music under a hot burning blanket? Do you like trips and dreams? Do you really like blues under a postmodern manner? If the answer is yes, just stay here… Slow tempos, sand inside your eyes, a desert in front of you and then a high snowed mountain. Rocks and water tumble down. Their music is psychedelic and something like slowcore. Experimental drones and slow motion guitars. I think they produce really good music. They sound to me original and innovative. Great job! Weird, deep, mystic, eerie, this music is uncanny. The album is strange but beautiful and sounds fully inspired. Dark ballads, scary music, closing eyes, slow rhythms and murder atmosphere. From Texas to New York… a trip from the summer to the winter. Hot and cold, scalding and frozen… enjoy and get inside of it. This music is progressive, this album (oh what a great mosaic floor in the cover…!!!) is beautiful. 
Noisy soundscapes that can thrill your brain. “White Static Demon is a new Justin K Broadrick project for which he has been working on recordings for over one year. Again, like Council Estate Electronics, White Static Demon was inspired by Justin collecting and compiling material from Final cassette releases on his Post Mortem Rekordings label circa 1984-87”( http://justinkbroadrick.blogspot.com/). An album full of extreme noises, drones and experimental electronics. An abstract electro drone distortion. This is extreme and this is experimental. It is a new release which has been inspired by old material. I really enjoy it because it is a noisy ambient trip. Dreamy and gloomy vacations offered to my brain. Jump up and then dive into an extreme and rattle or hooting pool. 
Jonathan Dakers himself send me an email in order to make his work known to more people through our blog, this is also our politic and our point of view about music promotion and distribution. I have already listened to this album months ago, but I was always delaying this review, that was a mistake. It was a mistake, because it is a great album of drone sounds under a post background. These guys from Auckland, New Zealand make really good music. Ethereal ambient sounds, drones and noises with a post-rock and an experimental attitude. Their music is heavy and sometimes comes close to post-metal and drone doom releases. In general it is an experimental try with an extreme sound profile and excellent distortions and experiments. Some times relaxing others extreme but always beautiful and original.
“Justin Broadrick has always made music which could one day serve as a soundtrack to the end of the world, should we ever need one. Whether with Godflesh or Jesu [click here for other noiz post about: 
A sludgy post-hardcore from an Italian band. Brutal vocals rotate with clean and give to the atmosphere an alternative color.
This EP is a kind of folk doom, it is not exactly a metal release, it is more an experimental rock something than a heavy sound music, it is instrumental music with strange instruments and a folklore attitude.
This is a Digitalis Limited 2008 release, but back then, it was in an audio cassette version and in a limited edition. This year it comes out in a vinyl release from Dekorder. Two ambient tracks, full of experimentalisms and noises. 40 minutes of trips and dark memories. Track No1 ‘Black Scripture’ is very atmospheric and really experimental, it is a great composition from the band and I think is my favorite. Dark and gloomy, noisy and a bit dreamy. This track is the ambient, chilly part of the vinyl. Track No 2 ‘Gilted Rose’ it isn’t so atmospheric like the previous one, but is more mysterious and really black and scary. There’s a distant black metal style evil vocal that appears to possess your mind. It is recommended to fans of drone, ambient, noise and maybe black metal. It is the dark and black metal part of the vinyl and it can contradict to great dark ambient and atmospheric black metal bands. Great try from the band. Check out the previous releases of them. 
Ramesses – baptism of the walking dead [ep] 
Moss – Tombs of the Blind Drugged EP
Last year I have been impressed with the experimental live performance Sunn did in Norway (
Slackly and without remorse heavy guitar riffs. This band is the British version of Neurosis. Slow motion doom metal and experimental passages. Modern metal and a more alternative seeing of the compositions. Crazy, it is insane, really noisy and industrial metal sound. Ohh my Lord… this is heavy and shitty. Fantastic, huge, unreal, fabled, fancy, incredible ambient metal. They are influenced by Neurosis, but this is the right thing. This is a noisy meta-modern metal. I think this is THE album that I seek for lot of years. A mix of the Angelic Process with Neurosis, Isis and Electric Wizard and a smack of My Dying Bride, Cult of Luna, Corrupted and Cursed, in the end there is a refreshment of Sunn 0))) and Nadja… One of the best crusty hardcore metal releases ever.
Thanks to Damian from the band for sending in their album ‘Alchera’. This release is quite strong. I find out influences from all around the extreme genres of rock and metal. This is a metalgaze release, really experimental and truly inspired. It is their debut full length album. Damian used to work as a solo project but this year there is a full member band over there. 42 minutes of noisy modern metal recorded at Head Gap Studios by Neil Thomason in the heat waves of Melbourne and mastered from the post and noisy albums master, James Plotkin (Isis, Khanate, Burning Witch, Pelican, Earth). All this things together with the Label, Denovali, offer us a great mix of influences, profile, image and attitude. I really respect this label, I strongly respect Mr Plotkin and I really fall in this album. I dive deep in the waters of the Ausies. Excellent guitar riffs and drone doom atmosphere. I think this album could be one of my favourite. Industrial fuss, grief, turmoil and rattle mixed together. I can affiliate them with bands such as Jesu, Bossk, Rosetta, Cable, Black Boned Angel, Conifer, Electric Wizard and Khanate, but at the end they are more atmospheric and melodic from all the above. . A combination of sludgy, dusty, doomy, gloomy, and dirty metal with experimental ambient and noisy passages. Great job. 
Slow tempo obsessive and soul-destroying doom metal. A 2008 work that came as a CD-r and now released from 
KTL is a duo made up of Stephen O’Malley (Sunn O))), Khanate) and Editions Mego head Peter Rehberg (Pita). In the compositions of IV, O’Malley’s doom riffs are more out front and centre and Rehberg’s tense electro-mind make the atmosphere of IV chillingly bleak. 
There is another great collaboration of these two artists. As I read in the tqa site: “Baker & Quach have decided to do things differently by setting a simple rule beforehand: the record was to be played and recorded live together, adding a very minimal amount of overdubs if not any. The recording session took place in the fall of 2007, in Quach’s own home studio TQA-HQ in Montreal. Because of their very busy schedule, it took about a year before the two artists decided to get together to work on these tracks again. This time, Baker finalized the mixes in his home studio, resulting again in four long movements, clocking at around an hour’s length. Instead of the overall terror-ambient feel of their first collaboration, the first two tracks actually find both guitarists exploring the brighter side of their spectrum, evoking the hope and the beauty represented in Christy Romanick’s photographs that were again used for the artwork, in conjunction with Quach’s sketches”. This Album is great. This mix of sounds is fantastic. Dark tones and sunny minds. 
A new release from Baker’s Nadja. This one is an album full of covers. From A-ha till slayer… Excellent shoegaze restoration of the songs. Quite interesting and modern. Give a try to this one, you will find excellent drone doom metal songs.
Fall of Efrafa play hardcore punk mixed with distorted extreme metal guitar riffs. This kind of music some people named crust. On the other hand FoE have really slow, doomy parts in their songs and they reach post-metal and sludge. This release is quite interesting and a great metal suggestion. Dusted vocals, slow metal riffs, noise guitars, heavy bass and dark drums. 
This band is a dirty heavy doom, drone and noise act. They experiment with the noise of the strings. This album is actually one song, more than one hour long, full of drones and noisy music. I can correlate them with OM, Nadja, Sunn 0))) and Earth, unlike these bands Bongripper have more melodic and pure metal parts. This music is totally stoned; amplifiers and boosters suffer a lot…
Experimental metal band. Nice music, great ideas, fresh sound and an amateur production that make the sound and the atmosphere better. I can define it as an atmospheric sludge. There is an ambience around the heavy sounds. I don’t have any other information. I think they are Spanish. 
Heavy metal, groovy rhythm, scream vocals, brutal attitude, stoner guitars, metal riffs, huge bass lines, punk atmosphere. This is a fantastic underground act from Canada. I don’t know why they are still unknown. This is a great album for headbangers!!!
The Greek Atmospheric Death Machine is Back after Several Years of Silence with a New Killer Production! Great songs, great atmosphere, really heavy music. Among the best Death albums of this year. 10 January live in Athens, Gagarin205. 
Conifer combine a space rock music background with metal, hardcore and modern alternative music. They are heavy and really hard. This album is really interesting and is a post rock wannabe with a heavy metal smell. Their sound is coming from the early 70s and ends up 2 or 3 years later from now. They remind me the Grails. 
The band comes from France, I hope they will be like Overmars. French metal scene is really big and proud. Caldera points out an excellent profile and offers us interesting works. They are a metal band, as simple as this. This album is similar with doom metal releases, or sludge instrumental works, but I can’t define it. It is heavy, it is metal, it is well produced and well played. 
Again this mystical metal sense. Jarboe tries to impress with her voice. The album definitely has a good mix of styles on it – random bits of metal, droning, avant-garde, noise, melody, experimental, rock and electronica stuff. A great job, a soundtrack of voices and modern sounds.
As I said (in Greek) for the previous release “unconquered” , Eric, research the interminable spectrum of ambient sounds and repeated drone guitars. He tries to search the use of guitar as unique generator of tone. Using real-time looper he manufactures soundscapes and basic musical structures. If you like Unconquered you ll love this one. Hurry up this is the best ambient album of the year…
For sure one of the best experimental rock albums of the last years. I can’t explain it with words. There are songs in this album that are filled with immense beauty. You only need to listen some tones of the album. This is 100% instrumental post rock. 
Progressive modern metal. Great harsh and brutal vocals. Post sounds and Neurosis like atmosphere. New band, fresh ideas. A technical way of playing the instruments. There are some epic compositions in this release. Huge riffs and excellent background sounds. 
Innovative hardcore, noisy guitars, post metal attitude, moody atmosphere, angry vocals. A great recommendation from Latvia. The first full length album from the band. Follow them. 
Another sludge band. Clean vocals together with harsh voices. Fantastic rhythm section. Melodic guitar lines and heavy bass lines. Reminds me Rosetta and Isis. For sure they are not better, but the clean vocals add another attitude to their music. It is something like experimental art prog metal… heh?
Fantastic sounds. Excellent atmospheric noisy drones. I am really sad I didn’t pay attention to this one the whole year… I promise I will from now on. Fantastic Nadja, great releases (check them out, there are 5 or 6 more CDs this year…)
