The great thing about running a music blog like this is the sense of adventure and discovery. No matter how many incredible psychedelic bands I discover, there’s always an endless stream of others to find. It’s similar to the massive amount of books on my shelves. I’ll never read all those books in my lifetime, and I’ll never listen to every great piece of music, either, obviously. But the fact there’s so much great art out there is one of those “little joys” in life that, frankly, keeps me going through the darker times.
With that introduction, let me tell you about a band called Teeth of The Sea in this installment of “Crate Digging.” While browsing through Bandcamp, I was drawn to the cover of A Field In England: Re-Imagined, a special 2014 Record Store Day LP release that’s a re-imagined score to Ben Wheatley’s metaphysical midnight movie, A Field of England. The Bandcamp description goes on to describe the film and the score, neither of which I’d known about, and it sounds like the type of film right up my alley.
London-based Teeth Of The Sea formed in 2006, and they call themselves the most adventurous psychedelic rock outfit in the U.K. They draw influences from a broad range of artists and styles, such as Morricone, Eno, Goblin, and even the Butthole Surfers, and they say they’ve arrived at an “incendiary sound that marries the aural enlightenment of an avant-garde sensibility with the reckless abandonment of racket.” If you count the Butthole Surfers as an influence, you certainly love noise, racket, and reckless abandonment.
Teeth of The Sea is still going strong, as they released a new LP called Hive in October 2023. I included a track from Hive on the Third Eye Top Picks playlist, but I’ve yet to digest that album yet. In the meantime, I’ve been appreciating A Field in England: Re-Imagined. I haven’t listened to the original score for the film, but Teeth of The Sea’s version is hauntingly beautiful.
The LP comprises three tracks with ghoulish titles: “Whilst We Live In Fear of Hell,” “An Ungodly Scheme,” and “Open Up and Let the Devil In.” The band was initially spurred into action to record the record by a commission from the Cork Film Festival in November 2013, and they first performed the work in a converted church venue, Triskel, in Cork.
“Teeth of the Sea’s goal was to take the mind games, the malevolence, and the magick of the film as fuel for a work that exists on a parallel dimension to the earthen realm on which the protagonists carry out their actions,” it reads on Bandcamp. What a devilishly delicious sentence to describe the movie and the album; something that draws me into its spell even more.
As for the music itself, the three tracks are all fairly long instrumentals filled with moments of tension, beauty, and, at times, a sinister edge. That much should be evident judging by the track titles and the excellent cover art, with its color scheme of black and blood red.
The three songs also have the spaciousness of great ambient music, reminding me of the works of ambient Americana artist Aux Meadows, except this is set for a field in England, not a desert landscape in the States.
Teeth of The Sea’s A Field in England: Re-Imagined was initially released on red and white vinyl, and I’m not sure if you can snag any more of those copies. As of this writing, one red vinyl edition appears to remain. From what I can gather, the record is also only available on Bandcamp, so if you want to listen, you’ll have to head over there and grab a digital copy.
If you like A Field in England: Re-Imagined, check out the rest of Teeth of The Sea’s work, including their latest album, Hive. In addition to Hive, they have five other LPs to devour, starting with 2009’s Orphaned by the Ocean. Enjoy!
Check out Teeth of The Sea’s A Field in England: Re-Imagined on Bandcamp here.
Support Teeth of The Sea on Bandcamp or find them on social media (Instagram, Facebook).
Support or follow The Third Eye on Patreon here.
Sign up for email updates from The Third Eye below:
Leave a Reply