One of the many things that I like about Teeth of the Sea is that you never quite know what you are going to get from release to release and, it turns out, when you go and see them live too. Both these non-expectations have come about for me in the last month or so with the release of their new and very different album ‘Hive’, and my second gig of theirs this year… which contained no common tracks to the set list from six months earlier… this is wholly a good thing. However, both ‘Hive’ and the gigs are/ were still very much within the Teeth of the Sea musical universe (TotSMU… an A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. that I won’t be using).

This got me thinking why that is… what are the common elements that fuse their sound together, and especially with an album which sounds coherent yet seems to come out of two different projects (more on this in a bit). I think that the first thing to say is that Teeth of the Sea are more than the sum of their parts. All three: Sam Barton, Mike Bourne and Jimmy Martin, bring their own diverse musical tastes to the mix and create an alchemy that can be unpredictable yet contains some base elements. These are some of the ones that I have managed to isolate… Ecleticism, this probably goes without saying but is forever evident within and across albums… Panoramic, there is something within their music which constantly seems to evoke wide vistas in your mind, these are never the same but this is music that is most definitely wide-screen… Detailed, while staring out across the sonic plains you find yourself alighting on some little nuance that feels like a sort of Easter Egg whether it be Jimmy’s guitar, Sam’s trumpet or Mike’s beats; there is a lot that is making up those landscapes… Emotional, I think the casual listener might find some of Teeth of the Sea’s music to be cold and stark in places but I think the opposite is the case, there is a strange warmth to much of their oeuvre which I think is perhaps not mentioned enough. This is music that seems to me to come from the heart, and I remember crying the first time that I saw them live at the Liverpool Psych Festival in 2014, I think that it was ‘Dreadnought’ from 2013’s ‘Orphaned by the Ocean’ that did it. There was anger in 2015’s ‘Highly Deadly Black Tarantula’, and there was a longing at the heart of 2019’s ‘Wraith’… I could go on, but let’s get to ‘Hive’…

The album starts of with ‘Artemis’ one of three tracks which sort of anchor the the album, with ‘Æther’ and ‘Apollo’ they are part of a commission to create a live soundtrack at London’s Science Museum for a documentary on the Apollo moon landings. Here ‘Artemis’ has also those common elements that I have already mentioned and which settle the listener into the mindset that this is going to to be a Teeth of the Sea sort of experience…

This is heightened by ‘Get With The Program’ with its massive beats and breathless vocals which fire us off into the sonosphere… and introduces us to the other element of this album, which is set out in the Bandcamp notes:

In Frank Herbert’s 1973 novel Hellstrom’s Hive, the Dune writer tells of a sinister narrative surrounding the maverick scientist Nils Hellstrom, who has created a meticulously constructed Hive underneath his Oregon farmhouse. Therein, he oversees a subterranean order of 50,000 insect-human hybrid life-forms. Ultimately his plan being for the inhabitants of the Hive to usurp humanity and take over the world.

https://teethofthesea.bandcamp.com/album/hive

…it is an early massive moment to this set, and one in which I knew that I HAD to see the band live on this tour… but just at that moment when you think that all sorts of techno juggernauts are going to be released into the wild, Teeth of the Sea bring in back with a synth pop song that is ‘Butterfly House’ which is as lovely as it is unexpected… the sultry vocals from Kath Gifford (Snowpony, The Wargs, Sleazy Tiger), the beats and the ace guitar that weaves itself in and out of the track mean that there is much to explore here… with the final blessing being the brief emergence of some trumpet action at the end.

…and at the beginning of ‘Liminal Kin’ which os one of those slow and heavy metallic numbers which suggest a lost sheen… of something that is seeking past glories, a darker track that contrasts quite starkly with what had gone on previously and something that leaves you feeling quite cold… something that blends quite well into ‘Æther’ which also had that sense of isolation… of nothingness… again finding emotion and detail in something that at first sight seems cold and panoramic… ‘Æther’ also acts as something of a gateway to the rest of the album which is essentially where the main action happens…

’Megafragma’ is a massive ten-minute behemoth of the order that I have always wanted Teeth of the Sea to do… it is experimental and it is massively danceable… particularly if your dance floor is in dense undergrowth on a faraway planet where your moves involve dodging potentially life-threatening tentacles… yes, as you would expect from Teeth of the Sea, this is not your run of the mill evening down the Roxy, or even Berghain, this is a full-on all senses trip into the unknown… and I love it.

After that we begin the process of re-entry into the arena that we might call ‘reality’… ‘Powerhorse’ has a grandeur to it and seems to straddle the two projects at work here… you can very much imagine being in space as you move back towards the home world with a melancholy for the journey behind you, but the pull of the familiar ahead… before coming back into the cold mysterious space of ‘Apollo’ which in some ways reminded me of Hildur Guðnadóttir’s ‘Chernobyl’ soundtrack. ‘Apollo’ once again has that sense of grandeur to it, with the trumpet providing the unique angle that the band give to all their music… this is the end of the journey into Teeth of the Sea country… and I for one can’t wait to to go out there again.

And I did, to a hastily arranged gig in Derby which saw the band in fine form and gave me my first chance to hear this album live. I was expecting fireworks and I was not disappointed… with many of the tracks from ‘Hive’ turning into absolute live bangers… and an totally insane version of 2009’s ‘Hypnoticon’ at the end… all in all a very satisfying foray into the TotSMU (sorry) which always bring something new and unexpected… until the next instalment!

’Hive’ is out now on Rocket Recordings.

-o0o-

Hey, 

Thanks very much for reading my blog, I really appreciate this. I write it as a labour of love to help me enjoy music, and to give something back to the many talented people who put out these incredible sounds.

To make it as enjoyable as possible for others I do pay extra so there are, for instance, no ads on these pages; but it would be great if the blog could pay for itself.

So, if you’ve really enjoyed your visit here and have found some music that you think is amazing, why not buy me a coffee (I write in independent cafés a lot) by clicking either below, or the “make a donation” button on the sidebar or footer depending on your device.

Cheers…

Follow The Fragmented Flâneur on Facebook, Instagram/ Threads (@fragmentedflaneur) and bandcamp