When a work comes bearing the stamp of the legendary James Plotkin (Khanate; Old) as mastering engineer, it gives pause for thought. When you add into the equation that said album is being released via Buzzhowl Records (a new venture already making a considerable name for itself), then it’s clear that this is a record deserving of attention. A band with an impressive heritage, Glasgow synth outfit Damn Teeth released their debut via Good Grief Records in 2015, racking up supports with Future of the left, dead rider and many others in the process. This second album, entitled real men, sees the band evolving the anarchic legacy of the Chemikal Underground label, replacing guitars with synths and ramping up the psychedelia on tracks like the real control, simultaneously tackling the mindfield of masculinity with an intelligence that will be familiar to those who have fallen under the spell of Idles in recent years.
Opening with the gruelling horror of you’ll only make it worse, Damn Teeth draw cruelly distorted noise out of their overloaded synths, against which Paul McArthur’s smooth drawl (part Josh Homme, part Alun Woodward) slithers and slides, a surprising melodicism and groove apparent amidst the fizzing noise that forms the backdrop. Referencing the ferocious neon-rave-assault of acts like the Prodigy without sacrificing the underground punk energy from which the band’s ethos is clearly derived, you’ll only make it worse is one hell of an opener and sets the tone for what follows. The band’s multiple vocalists (Kate Stonestreet, Seonaid Stevenson, Kim Miller, Jennifer Melville, Tom Irvine, are all listed alongside the core band) are put to good use as scattershot snatches are hauled from amidst the stuttering noise on MRA Soundsystem, a hellish take on disco fuelled by a ketamine overdose and soaring levels of paranoia. The sense of relentless unease continues into the hellbound stomp of dominant muscle, a barely-coherent piece that shifts from foot-tapping beat to the screaming horror of death valley ’69-era Sonic Youth without warning, sending the listener scurrying for cover. In the light of all that’s gone before, the album’s single, real control, is a surprisingly accessible listen, despite the gruelling nature of the lyrics. The first half of the record grinds to a halt with the shimmering synths of deserving pest, a track that fully justifies the QOTSA comparisons made elsewhere (think the eerie robo-rock of era vulgaris), Paul adopting a similar croon to Josh Homme at his most fragile-yet-threatening.
The second half of the album emerges from the rumbling horror of cattle, a short, deeply unsettling segue that paves the way for the abject horror of pink pitbull, an anarchic slab of spiralling insanity that sounds like Jello Biafra going head to head with Atari Teenage Riot with only a selection of Casio keyboards on demo mode. Heavily Telegraphed / Correctly aligned seethes with irony over a glam-stomp backdrop whilst real men adopts a depeche mode posture musically over which Paul unleashes a horrific list of all the things expected of ‘real men’ in a society still dominated by patriarchy. The album comes to an end with the stuttering coasting on genetics, a John Carpenter theme played out on cheap, barely-functional synths that grows into a monster as the track progresses. Musically, it’s a suitably distressed ending, although lyrically, the closing moments of real men arguably encapsulate the bulk of the album’s themes into two deeply uncomfortable and distressingly catchy minutes.
Damn Teeth are one of those bands who, despite the sonic savagery, have the potential to go far thanks to the fiercely intelligent lyrics and the melodies with which they sneakily underpin each track. Drawing from elements of punk, post-punk, new wave and pop, Damn Teeth are unafraid to utilise all the tools at their disposal to make their point and they do so in a manner that worms its way past your defences with a catchy hook before the full impact of the words hits home. A band who, like Idles, directly challenge the elements within society that we like to tell ourselves have long disappeared, Damn Teeth are an important counterpoint to the current crop of power-suited politicians and pundits who seem hell-bent on unpicking every single piece of social progress made in the last two decades and deserve to be heard – but you won’t necessarily enjoy the ride. 9
