Formed in late 2024, teethin are led by Greek-Welsh artist James Minas (Welsh Music Prize nominee, BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, NME, SXSW). Other band members are from Wales, the Ukraine, and the Philippines. Is it this blend of backgrounds that creates their chaotic, cathartic, and to be clear, cohesive sound? Minas has found himself frustrated by the inward-looking tendencies of modern humanity. “So much shit happens in public, on transport or on the internet, and it’s like, why did no one step in?” he wonders. “We’re all very much of the mindset that, if we see some kind of madness unfolding right in front of us, we just shrug and go, ‘It’s not my problem.’” This mindset could be considered the thread that runs through their debut EP Greed Between the Lines set for release on 3 October.
Opener ‘THROWIN SHAPES’ has a skittish start which is unnerving, an unconventional beginning to a body of work. The twitchy tension continues until the tribal drum beat arrives. Frustration is obvious in the vocals which looks at the common ignorance we overhear in the day-to-day, and how the blame for our problems are put on the most marginalised people in our society. “We were sat in the pub one time and heard a group of middle aged white men talking about how Katie Hopkins and Trump say it how it is.” Minas explains. “Sometimes it feels like we’re just ants crawling over each other arguing amongst ourselves while being laughed at and spat on by the upper classes”. This frustration boils over, let off the leash as the intensity and pace of the track run wild.
‘LARA SCOFFED’ follows, a bombastic assault on the senses. At times hardcore and at others a funky hip-hop albeit with lyrics distorted adding to the tension. The thrashing chorus is utterly exhilarating. “You all say the same things” is on repeat until the music warps in and out towards the end. Thematically it references disillusionment with the country and the industry in which the band works. Minas states: “Constant championing of nepo-babies within music that can only be described as beige and overly safe, surface level complaints about a life that when compared to the serious struggles of those in places like Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and the Congo seem ridiculous to write songs about.”
‘DUD’ opens with a heavy bassline and the clear vocal of Minas. It winds up to a phenomenal slab of drum and bass. ‘DUD’ despairs at the faux working class of some of those within the music industry. “Too chic to fall in love with” he sings Minas. “People in our circles are a hell of a lot closer to homelessness or alcoholism/drug addiction than they are to being well off” he explains.
‘MY GENERATION is a dystopian sequel to the Rolling Stones song. Contemplative and considered
with a softer approach, until the feral dancebeat leaps in. “Something isn’t right within,” Minas mutters. “Medicate, facilitate…” Trying to work out his place in this tumultuous world, being exasperated with it all builds within the track. He berates both the systems that have tried (and in some cases succeeded) to stamp out the innately rebellious nature of art, from underground subcultures to pirate radio, and the apathy in today’s society as we spend more time tearing one another apart on social media.
Final track ‘BROKE THE LIGHT’ is intensely personal. It explores the impact when we pin all our happiness on another person. “Looking back, I gave a lot of control to someone I was in a relationship with, and they’d be able to break my mood with just a word,” says Minas. The track ebbs and flows between Minas singing in a more measured tone, to the utter fury with the situation. The extremes within one track are earth-shattering. An impassioned end to Greed Between The Lines, the word play of the title completely obvious by the first listen. Taking the punk movement of the Eighties, rave culture of the Nineties, and the explosion of grime in the early Noughties, teethin have thus produced an EP oozing with attitude and opinion. The mix of genres is spine-chilling, and the perfect soundscape to the frustrations of contemporary society. Live it will be a fireball of intensity, the moshpit will have no choice but to react. I’ll see you down the front.
For more information on teething please check their facebook and instagram.
