Inexplicably, Teeth Of The Sea aren’t widely hailed as the great British genre-splicing scientists of innovative sound they’ve become, but this release may change that.
With its bass rumbles and wailing bursts of magnesium-white guitars, portentous opener All My Venom is a perfect piece of high-tensile musical drama that somehow manages to make mariachi trumpets sound sinister. The London quartet’s strength lies in their layering of sound to create an experience that’s as visceral as it is anxiety-inducing. Hard electro gives way to ice-cold synth melodies while snatches of background industrial noise are so distorted you question whether you even heard them at all. The band’s influences are musical, and cinematic too (Carpenter, Morricone, Goblin’s work with Argento). Both Have You Ever Held A Bird Of Prey and Field Punishment may qualify as techno but they won’t be soundtracking any loved-up, pill-popping epiphanies soon; this is malevolent music made to quicken the pulse, and to probe the hinterlands of one’s deep subconscious. Love Theme For 1984 is elegiac proof, however, that at their heart of darkness the Teeth have soul. A masterful album made by true originators.
