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Tooth History
in late 96 Sir Robbo, known for his involvement in the Frigid/Cryogenesis crew, the cult Head Shots magazine and member of dub allstars Atomic Hi-Fi met Kevin Purdy, sonic adventurer, who as Purdy had been developing a catalogue of down-tempo experimental sounds for some years. Together, they found their musical, cinematic and cultural aspirations acutely interwoven.
This was the birth of Tooth.
Within a very short time Tooth's own brand of psychedelic, cinematic, folk, soul & dub laden tunes were finding their way onto many compilations and their live performances making their way into Sydney folklore.
in 1999 Tooth released their first CD album No Strings, an album adored by many, praised to the high heavens in the Australian media becoming for months a staple on independent radio around the country.
By 2001 there were many more additions to compilations and a higher development of performances, due to the inclusion of legendary bass playing wizard John Maddox becoming a third member. After many months in the Soft studio Tooth released an even more adventurous album entitled,Sirens from here to Titan. Grandly cinematic in its scope, Sirensi. journeyed from finely shaped melodies and hypnotic, solid rockin' rhythms, with a hinted theme stretching the deepest of mythical seas, spiraling to Kubrick-like visions in far outer galaxies.
The repercussions of this fab new work led to Tooth supporting such acts as Tortoise, Labradford, Pan Am, Burnt Freidman as well as many fine headline performances and inclusions at major festivals and events such as the Sydney Festival and Big Day Out.
The next couple of years were none too kind to any leftfield travellers, undesiring of the new state of consumerist hedonism devouring the once blooming music culture. Tooth went into a semi-hibernation, though they released their killer 12 Shift / Sons of shade as well as several remixes and comp tracks.
Then in 2005 with a renewed verve Tooth buried themselves deep into developing an album which was to be their finest work, Mudlarking, a double CD epic, with all of musicality, passion, hope, anger and release accumilated over the years into an earthy and highly charged work.
Released in Australia in May 06 Mudlarking bowled over punters & critics with its irresistable sonic colour & depth. The reviews have been incredible and radio here has given it quite a flogging.
Mudlarking is getting some wonderful props from all over the globe now. Some might say well deserved.
Mudlarking Blurb
Mudlarking is an opus, a double gatefold cd, a heady concoction of fourth world electronics combined with freaked out psychedelic flourishes and deep warm space grooves. it's music to lull and excite, often at the same time, a gorgeous swirling mass of sound that takes the form of a giant fun rollicking soundtrack from an ill defined time.
it is music that takes its time to unravel, one moment you're in Lalo Schiffrin inspired 70's jazz funk the next you're in Krautrock space rock heaven. Yet there are also many other strange and subtle worlds contained herein. Their third album, after the critical success of 1999's No Strings and the raves that greeted 2001's Siren's From Here to Titan, the trio of Sydneysiders, Sir Robbo, Kevin Purdy and John Maddox have finally dropped the masterwork they have been threatening to deliver over the past nine years.
Tooth have opened up their music to a plethora of new collaborators. in particular legendary experimentalist Daevid Allen, co founder of the Soft Machine, leader of Gong and renowned solo artist who has played with everyone from Robert Wyatt to Bill Laswell, William S Burroughs and Acid Mother's Temple. Here Allen offers some evocative Dada meets musichall vocals and his sonically mindbending Glissando and fuzz guitars. Elsewhere on the album, Tooth team up with Peter and Tim Hollo from Fourplay and Pip Branson from Something For Kate for strings, Jeremy Barnett of Prop on marimba & glockenspiel, Rory Toomey from Meta Bass & Breath playing drums & percussion, Tim Batson from the Architects playing Moog, Farfisa & Stylophone, John Encarcao of Warmer on accoustic guitar, Sloth on Hammond C3 an assortment of other keys and brass, Adam Cox on Clavinet and ian Pieterse on saxophones.
This gathering of friends and admired musicians added the neccesary magic, love and expression to aid in the fullfilment of this great musical project. All that's left are instructions. Lie back, press play and take a bite of Tooth
For further info, pictures, sounds and sales points for Tooth and other Soft Records artist releases go to our website www.softrecords.com
REViEWS
Tooth are a Sydney collective defying definition. Balancing overtly melodic samples, broken beats, disembodied voices and processed frequencies with live instrumentation. Their aural murals are a soft-focus journey through some '20s mescalin inspired hollywood dreamscape.
- Johnathan Alley - Sunday Age - Preview - 4 stars -June 11 -
A 2006 space rock / electronic / psychedelic/ Exotica double CD opus! A heady concoction of synth and guitar sound, keyboards strings and sample loops that stimulate and calm, and an album that the Australian duo have been threatening to create for a while. Understandably it must have taken some time to make this vast, ambitious work, clearly a lot of love and care has gone into this magnificent achievement that's just waiting to be explored by the listener.Psychedelic flourishes abound throughout the deep warm spaced out grooves. Features Daevid Allen on guest vocals and guitars and various bands from their native Australia.
- Freak Emporium - UK
For those who like a clearly defined music label, the sad news is there are good arguments for putting this album by Sydney trio Tooth into any of five categories.But because art is at its heart, whether expressed as electronic musings, throbbing krautrock, adventurous rock, film noir soundtrack or the borders of jazz fusion. its most appropriate term is progressive rock. And proud of it.
in many ways they work in territory as likely to be occupied by American hip-hop's DJ Shadow as German art rockers Can. interesting company to keep.
- Bernard Zuel - Spectrum - Sydney Morning Herald - 17th June 2006
Tooth appear to be operating in a different time frame, and possibly even in another dimension.This is music that seems to share something with a late '60s spirit, a time when creating something beautiful and different took higher priority.
Still looking for a tag? How about adventurous, high-spirited, good-humoured.
Not many in that box of late, are there!
- Noel Mengel - Chief Music Writer - The Courier-Mail - 26th June 2006
Finally, a double CD release that deserves both discs!
Tooth, independent Sydney psych-jazz-electronica band, and Frigid favourites for about a decade, have released a wonderfully entertaining, incredibly well arranged and performed album that stretches seamlessly over the two discs.
Comparisons to the genius of Pink Floyd are favourable in Tooth's case, as they make wonderfully captivating music that is so much deeper than it suggests at a casual listen.
Entirely transfixing, this is one of the best Australian albums i've ever heard.
- Alistair Erskine - BMA Magazine - 7th September 2006
…they have managed to capture a true sense of overwhelming musical power. Think
Decoder Ring. Tortoise or early Boards Of Canada in eerie acoustic mode.
it will draw in from beginning to end and defiantly deserves to be played
in full.
- Chen Binyarnos - the Brag - July 2006
Tooth bring together elements of prog, Krautrock, psychedelia, and other sounds besides to create a hybrid sound that is not quite like anything else.
- Andrew Weaver - Electric Newspaper - June 19 2006
Rather than simply being one of the best examples of the psychedelic / downbeat rock genre from an Australian band i’ve yet heard this year, ‘Mudlarking’ easily goes down for this reviewer as one of the most engrossing, rewarding and meticulously conceived examples of the ‘progressive’ rock genres to emerge from these shores in recent years. A veritable gem that begs for year-end list status already.
- evilchris2 - inthemix - July 4th, 2006
Somewhere within the specular triangulation of the kraut of Can, the linear jazz of The Necks and the tribal percussion of Arthur Nyman lies Tooth. Not short on ideas or material, the band’s third album is a double album opus of audio exploration. Centred around their penchant for blissed-out groove, Mudlarking sees this Sydney trio taking some adventurous steps into an unknown psychedelic heaven.
This heady mixture is a lot to get lost in, a strange brew that’s a remarkably impressive and totally uncontrived journey through a constellation of mini-utopias.
- Mark Leg - Time Off - Qld
This double disc album is an epic, not just because it consists of eighteen
tracks, but because of the way Tooth have extended their styles and approach in the interim. it's a strange swirly mass of sound that exists like a giant fun rollicking soundtrack where you can throw around words like, Krautrock, psychedialia, downtempo, prog, and not ever get remotely close to the canvas. it's a hard record to consciously listen to as you keep floating away. its very groove based and it emphasises that Tooth are operating in a different time zone than the rest
of the world.
There is not a single misstep. Each song is an opus. All you need to do is
stand on the edge and allow yourself to get swallowed up.
- Bob Baker Fish -
Cyclic Defrost - inpress Magazine - July 2006
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