London-based alt/dance/disco-punk artist Teenage Sequence (aka Dewan-Dean Soomary) has announced the release of his self-titled debut full-length, and has shared his new single “Tell Me Your Name“.
Recorded in Soomary’s flat in Bethnal Green, East London, the 9-track album will be out on September 29 via Get Better Records and Everything Sucks Music. Pre-order it here.
Teenage Sequence’s infectious (but never innocent) beats blend the snappy pop sensibility of indie disco with the bleak humour and biting social commentary of post-punk, creating a sound that’s all-at-once irresistibly nostalgic and nervously forwards-looking.
The analog sounds of vintage synths and guitars, played and recorded by Dewan, blend with live drums by James Gulliver, backing vocals by Kristin Ferebee (Beirut; Bishop Allen), and the work of co-producer Kevin Vanbergen (Nova Twins, Gramme, The Slits) to create songs that are simultaneously about the lineage of music as a joyful shout by silenced voices and the loving technology that has allowed their voices to be heard.
Soomary shares:
“I had a ton of unfinished ideas that are often comprised of one solid bass line or synth part. I’d take like 4 bars of music and create songs out of those – adding and taking away parts to signify the different parts of the song, rather than having chord changes or using the more traditional guitar band song writing tropes. I love songs that have one thing running throughout them that doesn’t change— you have to bend to that part.”
“I had tried working with a couple of different producers who for one reason or another didn’t work out. Once I had written ‘The City Is Hungover’, I just thought to call Kevin. I figured he might get it— in this day and age where popular songs seldom go past 3 minutes, it’s a bit insane to call someone and be like, ‘Hey, we haven’t done any work together for a decade, but I’ve got this 8 minute song that’s basically the same thing over and over again, and it’s about being hungover, and it’s spoken-word… fancy working on it together?’ But that’s what I did, and Kev got it. Kevin brought in James, who also got it, and by the time we finished it, I was like: okay, this plus my wife— that’s who’s making this record”.
According to the press, the album takes you on a musical journey through some of music’s more shadowy intersections, with proto-house, acid, krautrock, UK garage, as well as post punk, disco, and pop creating a soundtrack over which Soomary tells acid-tongued and relatable stories about the humiliations and alienations of modern life.
Check out “Tell Me Your Name” below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art.
Teenage Sequence Tracklist:
- All This Art
- DIS-Connect
- Giving Up
- My Love
- Fist Fight (The Drive)
- Get Weird!
- I Can
- The City Is Hungover
- Tell Me Your Name
Upcoming Live Shows
Sep 29 – Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes London, UK
