Teeth of the Sea – Orphaned by the Ocean

I’m really not fond of post-rock – I find it quite pretentious. I also don’t really like all the drone stuff that’s so fucking popular in indie circles nowadays. Avant-garde gives me the creeps more than anything – I find the labeling so misused although a band like Sunburned Hand of the Man do hit it right from time to time with all their circus show on top. So when I recently stumbled over this London band I was quite surprised. Teeth of the Sea is out on the great label Rocket Recordings. They play instrumental music with strong elements of post-rock and drone. Extremely layered and what you musically will call “epic” and they build what we with the biggest cliché will call “soundscapes”. I was therefore almost happy when I read this statement in an interview: “We were all sick to death of going to avant-garde and noise shows and being bored to tears by either uncharismatic self-important post-rock style muso behavior or dull laptop-staring showmanship.” Well, a bit out of context, but the meaning is clear, right! This is some fucking serious heavy stuff, man! I love this music! It’s so layered and creates so many different expressions. And the trumpet … I mean the trumpet?!? How often do you hear a clear, sorrow Morricone style trumpet lead the music when it comes to swirling dark epic psychedelia? But, it’s the trumpet man – the trumpet made me loose control of my inner senses. And it’s right from the start of the CD. Everything starts out with the heaviest drone, strange synth sounds and then the trumpet. These guys fuck the socks off all the pretentious crap out there. The sound is so wide and scary with layers of layer of feeding guitars and God damn heavy bass. Put Neurosis to bed and come out for a black mariachi sabbathi. In many ways this music sounds like the background noisy part of Torche’ “Amnesian” put in front and pushed to the extreme. The music is all instrumental, but there’s some real scary use of voices like in the beginning of “Sentimental Journey” before the band drones you out for almost five minutes – and then the bass comes in with a heavy Joy Division’ish groove, only to get lost in a swirl of noise at the end. End of record - fucking WOW! So glue on your headphones and float away with the band, don’t resist when you feel like your loosing control. Let the airborne acid-waves get to your inner ear and cross the membrane to the very deepest part of your crippled mind. Don’t be scared, it’s only music – but you will for sure get addicted – he, he, he ... If you dig: Boris, Torche, Nadia – then this is for you! @ MySpace Rocket Recordings LowCut Magazine