Teeth Of The Sea - "Your Mercury"
(Rocket Recordings 2010, CD/LP/Digital Download)
Teeth Of The Sea - "Your Mercury"
(Rocket Recordings 2010, CD/LP/Digital Download)
From Aural Innovations #43 (October 2011)
Interesting London band that bear more than a passing resemblance to such amphetamine-fueled kraut rockers as Guru Guru and Ash Ra Tempel in their early psychedelic freakout days, though understandable a bit more pruned and polished by today's recording standards. No information is forthcoming from the press release as to personnel or instrumentation but a barrage of noisy, effects-laden guitars and swirling synths lead the assault on your sensory cortex. This is especially apparent on the title track and A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. where Teeth of the Sea jam with great Teutonic bravura in the grand spirit of The Cosmic Jokers; the soaring guitars and concussion force rhythm section on both songs steer TOTS into territory not unlike that explored by Farflung on their most recent release A Wound in Eternity. But the group also knows when to chill and quiet the grinding roar, achieving an ambient calm with drifting keyboard textures and floating synth pads that hover in the mix like atmospheric phenomena. Songs like Midas Rex and Mothlike establish static, rhythmless backdrops for celestial navigators, creating a desirable counterpoint to the kamikaze blaze of the album's more assaultive tracks. Still, one gets the sense here, as with so much neo-psychedelic acid tripping, of ancient holy ground being re-furrowed, merely with more refined and more sophisticated tools. As with their contemporaries who plough a similar field, TOTS may well grow beyond its reliance on antecedents and evolve its own non-recycled sound. As it is, Your Mercury is an intriguing, if flawed, entry in the psychedelic overload sweepstakes and should appeal to anyone looking for a temporary vacation from the void that has become progressive music in the new millennium.
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Reviewed by Charles Van de Kree