No 48. Teeth of the Sea – Master

Back when I first moved to London, I worked shift work. I’d have a lot of dead days off with nothing to do and no friends to meet, so I’d go to a lot of nights that I’d refer to as frog kissing gigs. Bands that I wasn’t really into but I had nothing better to do. Sometimes they were a winner, most times not. But, on one fateful night, Teeth of the Sea were doing an album launch and I turned up to have a beer and see what was what. 

They blew my mind and had a good try at my eardrums. I was mostly deaf for the rest of the night and had become a fan for life. 

(When I was doing a bit of research for this piece, I discovered that the gig is on youtube! If you’re interested just have a look and imagine it’s so loud you can’t hear yourself think.)

Teeth of the Sea started life as a bunch of mates who went to see a Wolf Eyes gig and were so inspired by it they decided to start a band. Their first few releases were psychedelic post rock, but with Master, they found their voice. 

If I was to describe what I thought the high concept pitch for this album was, I go for John Carpenter making a soundtrack for a cyberpunk film while taking inspiration from spaghetti westerns. 

There really is nothing out there like TotS and they are one of the best examples of blending your influences to make something new.

After a short intro track, Reaper hits with a descending synthline that screams 80’s neon and chrome, and is strapped to a bassline that will not stop. Then the guitar kicks in and we’re off to cyberspace but also, somehow, that mountain top Slash played that solo on for the November Rain video. None of this should work but this is alchemy.

After that strong open, the mood crashes. The bpm plummets, the feeling of dread encroaches and the band starts a game of bait and switch with the listener. For every banger there’s going to be a track seeped with paranoia, probably involving some barely made out spoken word, synth drones and a trumpet. 

Don’t fear the trumpet. TotS would be nothing without that trumpet.  

Black Strategy is another highlight. They still had a live drummer at this point and here they made him work for this space on the stage. The pace increases and keyboards start to fill the soundstage. The trumpet soars over the repeating synths and it all feels like it’s going to boil over. It never really does on Master though, most of the songs on here are a tease like that. This album only brings release on the band’s terms, not yours. 

One of the more remarkable slower tracks, Pleiades Underground, has an unsettling horror film soundtrack vibe, with soft echoing piano and children’s voices down the mix. What’s not expected is the most evil Overkill style doom riff that comes out of nowhere and menaces the hell out of the listener. It’s so fantastically filthy it’s almost impossible not to play air guitar as it roars into life. 

The closer, Responder, marries trumpet, that filthy guitar and huge beats in a way I don’t think anyone else has even dreamed of, let alone made their signature sound. It’s a slow build over four minutes. Carpenter-esque synths, a slowly building guitar solo and some vocoder mumbling set the scene before it all kicks off into a delirious melting pot that spirals around itself before fading out an instrument at a time. It feels exhausted, put through the wringer but euphoric at the same time.

Master isn’t an easy listen, it’s not something you’re going to want to put on for a sunny evening in the garden. But when you’re in the mood for something a little different, something a little challenging, but something that will reward you with a world class banger at the end of it, this is for you. 

It honestly doesn’t sound like anyone else I’ve heard and more people should hear this band.

https://songwhip.com/teethofthesea/master