12 Oct 2010

Terrascope review of Teeth of the Sea’s Your Mercury



The first review of Teeth Of The Sea’s amazing new album comes from the great guys at terrascope:

TEETH OF THE SEA – YOUR MERCURY
(CD / LP)

The soaring, monolithic, majestic majesty of Teeth of the Sea continues to impress on this, their long awaited second album. Sounding for all the world like a collision between Oneida and Spaceheads – the London-based duo who sounded like Lightning Bolt with mariachi horns that blew audiences away at the Terrastock festival in San Francisco a few years ago – Teeth of the Sea’s terrascopic credentials are absolute and unquestionable. A lengthy tour last year with Oneida followed by dates with our very own Thought Forms only served to put the seal on that.

‘Your Mercury’ starts off gently enough, with a post-rock-esque pause and effect build-up from gentle effects to explosive noise-rock. By the time we get to the title track – which may either be ‘Your Mercury’ or ‘You’re Mercury’ depending on which part of the press release you believe (being a humble reviewer from a publication extremely low in the food chain, I haven’t been granted an audience with an actual copy of the album and have to rely on what I’m given…) anyway, by the time we get to the title track, whatever that may be, Teeth of the Sea are firing on more cylinders than a rocket exiting the Earth’s gravitational pull. Elegant, incendiary psychedelia which is at one and the same time devastating and darkly beautiful. ‘Midas Rex’ follows immediately after, with the band orbiting nicely through space by this stage, reminding me uncannily of moments found on Paul Kantner’s ‘Blows Against the Empire’ (this is meant as a compliment: I realise the album is generally frowned on by Jefferson Airplane purists but I happen to adore it).

Other favourites include the Kraut-rock-esque ‘A.C.R.O.N.Y.M.’ and the astonishing ‘Red Soil’, which riffs menacingly around just seven or eight softly spoken words and then suddenly exploding into a frenzy of superb drumming and toe-curling guitar licks. Sequencing is everything though, and even this wouldn’t be as effective without the haunting ‘Mothlike’ and menacing ‘Horses with Hands’ either side of it. I’m praying the band plays these in much the same order when they’re on stage – including the closing ‘Hovis Coil’, pulling together as it does all the elements of timing, trumpet, percussion, guitars and effects which in that very same order make this band so extraordinarily special.

Awesome doesn’t even begin to describe the cinematic tension they build up and release – and awesome likewise only touches on how impressively well Teeth of the Sea have corralled all their influences and shaped something new and utterly wonderful out of it. Did I mention I love this band? (Phil McMullen)

See the review here

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