The upcoming Teen Flirt album made its way to our 2016 album preview as a leap of faith. Teen Flirt’s solid string of lush, textured club tracks made us hopeful for new material, and now it’s finally here – “Señales” is everything we expected and more.
For his new single, David Oranday joins forces with two fellow Monterrey acts: synth pop duo Clubz and club vocalist Adrian Be. Together, they created a song that perfectly captures their individual sounds but remains tight and aesthetically coherent. Teen Flirt’s slick and sensuous beat serves as the backdrop, shape-shifting fluidly and seamlessly depending on which collaborator takes the lead. It almost drifts into an 80s ballad when vocals and gentle guitars from Clubz’s Coco Santos‘ appear, but then steps into R&B territory when Adrian Be’s soulful and auto-tuned crooning takes center stage.
As unexpected as the project is, the opportunity for collaboration has been a longtime feature of Monterrey’s musical community, as Oranday touched on in an interview with Remezcla. “I think in this specific situation [“Señales”] was more self-motivated. We always talk about the good days in Monterrey where everyone worked with someone and shared studios. I think the collaborations and opportunities didn’t end because of envy or jealousy, but because of the insecurities within music artists and the daily struggle. Frankly, we did this to show people in our hometown that it’s not that hard to reach out.”
They’ve also teamed up for the music video, directed by AJ Gómez and Fantasma Films. The visuals play with light and shadow, and the overall effect is sensuous, romantic, and slightly nostalgic.
There’s no word on whether the track will appear on Teen Flirt’s still-unannounced album, but Oranday did suggest that there’s opportunity for future collaborations between the artists. “I think the door is always open for future projects; it’s just a matter of perfect timing. We’re actually very connected, Coco is using Finesse [Records’] studio for the pre-production of [Clubz’s] album, and Adrian is doing voice references for the same album. I think once the year has passed a little, we would definitely make time to explore this sound.”