Teeth Of The Sea’s Ambitious Sprawling Electronica Elevates Listeners To New Heights

Teeth Of The Sea’s newest album Wraith feels like one of the most simply unique pieces of music imaginable. The British band’s work is mostly in vocal-less electronica, but even still, they manage to craft a strong sense of “story” to the point of their songs feeling more like an epic science fiction soundtrack than simply some nice jingles. If you imagine the ethereal, even otherworldly feel of Netflix shows like Stranger Things and The OA — you’re on the right track towards grasping just what this band have to offer on their newest release. The exciting part is that since this album is not specifically tied to a certain plot line, listeners are free to do what they wish with it. The music feels subtly mind-opening, like a suddenly approaching horizon.

Rather than an overwhelming focus on straightforward melodic lines so as to make the “dance” aspect of their music overwhelming, nearly every note on Wraith feels suspended in a musical fog of sorts, as if one has stumbled upon some sort of early morning scene where nature’s breath remains temporarily visible across a landscape. Teeth Of The Sea utilize nearly every side of the available sonic continuum, offering a work that in profile, feels somewhat like a mountain range that gets higher and higher as one goes along. There are triumphant melodic crescendos, more dream-like soundscapes, and work that fits right in between those two extremes packed into a striking tapestry on Wraith.

Ultimately, the music feels hard to categorize, which is really only ever a good thing. The band share a tale of being influenced by actual wraiths — meaning wispy ghost-like presences — during the production of their album, and the idea honestly fits in well with the finished product. Rather than simply attaching themselves onto the end of some already long-running musical tradition, Teeth Of The Sea feel like they’ve set out into new territory, where they blend a human, noisy grittiness with almost cosmic sonic explorations, lifting us up to the skies — if only for a moment and if only in our minds. The band’s music elevates our existence.

5/5 Stars

Listen below via Bandcamp