Sink Ya Teeth – ‘Sink Ya Teeth’

Binding tightly-wound, anxious electronic textures with driving, groove-addled basslines, Sink Ya Teeth unveil their debut record.

After playing in various musical projects, Maria Uzor and Gemma Cullingford got together to make DIY electronic music as Sink Ya Teeth. Early signs of something special came via the release of their debut single last year named If You See Me on 1965 Records, the release was backed by the excellent Circumstance on the flip side of the 7″.

The Norwich duo’s self-titled debut record binds tightly-wound, anxious electronic textures with driving, groove-addled basslines. The record has more than enough experimental fizz, raw beats, intriguing songcraft and electro-pop nuggets within it to stand up to any other electronic/ dance-inspired records this year.

The band carve out their own corner of dance music, the album starts strongly with the beat-driven Freak 4 the Kick, a simple kick drum opens followed by fizzing synthesizers and the duo’s now distinctive disco-punk bass groove. If You See Me follows on with the fluid bass groove and builds into a rhythmic beast, with Maria Uzor’s lyricism and vocals floating above the hypnotic waves of sound.

Previously released single, and sure-fire hit Substitutes, comes along and really kicks the album into life, it delves deeper into Sink Ya Teeth‘s love of post-punk and more melancholic, industrial trance music. This is all wrapped up in a short, sharp and punchy 3 minutes and 25 seconds of gloomy disco, a perfect fit for late night festival tents with mind-bending light shows.

One of the many strength’s of the duo’s self-titled record is that there are no bad songs or comedown moments, the bass-driven rhythms keep on giving, and the electronic textures and song structures build and fall without ever overstaying their welcome. See Petrol Blue with it’s spellbinding vocal harmony, Friends with it’s swirling electronic build and experimental flair, bounding in and out of control like an early doors LCD Soundsystem. Complicated is an excellent track which comes on like CSS but more direct, revelling in the art of catchy, dance-punk with interweaving basslines all snug within a pop nutshell.

Glass is a serious track, trippy and anxious yet sprawling and an all out dance, whilst Pushin‘ leaps in with a gooey, stuttering bass line and a dominating beat, the instrumental progression marks the track as one of their best, intense and lyrically creative, with cow bell to boot.

Like any great end to an album, the final two tracks Control and The Law, push into deeper more exploratory territory. Control sucks you into it’s possessive house roots, intense and foreboding, it’s a reflective track in it’s nature and a thought provoking roller coaster of a tune. The Law, is the band’s true post-punk/ electronic fusion, recalling the early work of New Order in the tracks icy and industrial atmosphere. The lush vocal range and unique nature of Maria Uzor’s delivery stands out, strong and in command, upon a record with so much to give, in such strange times.

WOOZE – ‘Hello Can You Go’ – A groove-addled, driving art rock introduction.

Ghum – ‘I’m The Storm/ Undone’ – Dream-rock quartet channel the dark arts in new single.