Teether and Kuya Neil have a double release for your mid-week listening.
“DIAL UP” and “SEA LEGS” offer the next taste of their upcoming debut album, YEARN IV, due May 2 via Chapter Music. Both tracks stay true to the experimental rap sound they’ve built in their solo work.
“DIAL UP” features Melbourne producer Stoneset, while “SEA LEGS” draws from the brooding, lo-fi sound of 2010’s SoundCloud rap.
Neil describes working with Stoneset on “DIAL UP”: “He brought the heavy low end and bounce and I added the synth and leads,” he continues while Teether adds, “I swear I left the room to no music and came back to him and Kuya Neil with this instrumental almost finished. I just knew it was hectic and we needed this track to exist.”
On “SEA LEGS”, Teether explains, “Lyrically, I feel like this captures the first-person day to day experience more accurately than any other.” Neil adds, “I loved pushing the darker broodier lo-fi sound with this track. Building tension but never fully releasing or resolving. My favourite Teether line on the record is ‘not off the boat but I still got the sea legs’.”
The visuals follow suit.
“DIAL UP”, directed by Phillip Dixon VII, takes a raw, handcrafted approach inspired by Sergei Parajanov and Andrzej Żuławski. “Texture, ritual and emotional rawness felt like the right language for the paranoid, psychedelic epiphany Teether unravels over Kuya Neil and Stoneset’s bouncing production.”
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For “SEA LEGS”, director Passive Kneeling kept things spontaneous. “I had some locations in mind then we just spitballed ideas on route to shooting. We ended up having a really fun and productive night, one of those projects that came together naturally after not putting too much stress on it.”
“DIAL UP” and “SEA LEGS” follow previous singles “ZOO” and “BLUSH”, all set to appear on YEARN IV.
Recorded in Naarm/Melbourne and finished in London, the album brings together Teether and Kuya Neil’s global influences.
Teether and Kuya Neil’s “DIAL UP” and “SEA LEGS” are out now via Chapter Music.
