8 Dec 2009

Terrascope reviews Hypnoticon



The promos for Teeth of the Sea's new EP 'Hypnoticon' were only sent out last week and it has already recieved a pretty good write up, courtesy of the lovely people at Terrascope:
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TEETH OF THE SEA – HYPNOTICON EP (LAUNCH035)

God, I love this band. Love, love, love them. Hailing from London, they’ve shuffled their line-up slightly since their debut album, ‘Orphaned by the Ocean’ (an album I urged you to hear at the time, so if you didn’t take me up on the introduction then you only have yourselves to blame), but for all that they’re if anything tighter now, sounding at one and the same time like an out of control juggernaut hurtling through a fog bank and a lone bird circling over a mountain. As I may have mentioned before, their sound reminds me at times of another London-based outfit, Spaceheads, a duo who frequently blasted themselves into outer space with the help of various electronic effects (including once, memorably, at an early Terrastock festival in San Francisco), and in terms of guitar sound of Hovercraft, who likewise once played Terrastock (but a different one, I think.). Should there be another Terrastock any time soon, Teeth of the Sea will be high on the list of bands I’d love to invite.


Theirs is a heady fermentation of sound which incorporates not just drum-loops and trumpet, but space-rock, drone, Kosmische musik (particularly on the awesome ‘Hypnoticon Viva’) and progressive rock time-changes. Anyone who caught them on tour recently at their gig with Thought Forms in Bristol, or with established Terrascopic favourites Wooden Shjips, The Heads or especially Oneida, will recognise this psychedelic tour de force of acid-fried guitar/drum mayhem immediately as they chose to close their set with it – no easy act to follow.


On ‘Hypnoticon’, a CD-EP forerunner to their forthcoming (June 2010 apparently) second album, Teeth of the Sea close out the set with an aurally stunning visage of haunting, panoramic ambience entitled ‘The Island Is’ which immediately put me in mind of Texan post-rock wonder-band This Will Destroy You. But with added trumpet. This is no bad thing and I can’t begin to recommend this band highly enough. Too early for release of the year for 2010? Probably. This makes my top 10 of 2009 though, easily. (Phil McMullen)

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The limited to 300 copies 12" EP will be released in all good record shops on February 1st.