Just recently, we introduced our readers to the innovative ‘Supermarkets, Underwater’. album, released by London-based boutique electronica label Happy Robots Records, This is a collaborative effort between electronic producer Scott Solter (St. Vincent, Maps & Atlases, Spoon, Superchunk, The Mountain Goats) and Brooklyn lounge-chill artist Roman Angelos, the nom de plume of Brooklyn-based producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Rich Bennett.
Roman Angelos was developed as a vehicle to explore his obsession with library recordings of the 60’s and 70s, muzak and exotica. Exotic, dreamy, and wistful, this is the sound of a jazz sextet as channeled through synths and drum machines, creating a spacey feel. Rich Bennett has also been involved in a diverse group of musical projects, including outsider / 60s proto-punk group The Shaggs, dream pop outfit Mahogany, Brazilian funk group Limoncello, and Stereolab’s Morgane Lhote (aka Hologram Teen).
This record sees Solter fully reimagine Roman Angelos’ 2022 album ‘Music For Underwater Supermarkets’, a sonic dreamscape that transposes the mundane act of grocery shopping to an aquatic utopian landscaping. Solter flips the script, transforming the bouncy and upbeat material of the original album into a darker and more ambient landscape. Weaving in noise and shifting electronic percussion, this is an entirely new record.
Following the video for the lead track ‘Swimming Through The Aisles (Teeming Mix)’, acclaimed filmmaker Mark Solter has created a music film for ‘The Underwater Supermarket (Thierry de Mer Mix)’, the album’s closing track. Here, Scott Solter’s twin brother Mark Solter creates a dark and alluring visual experience, adding to the full ambience of the work. A cinematographer and director working in narrative, commercial and branded content, Mark Solter is a multiple film festival award winner, who has collaborated on a number of autonomous films worldwide and is currently developing several scripted properties.
“I viewed the idea of being underwater, a supermarket under water, as a flexible metaphor. Ideas beyond the threat level and adversity of an environment not normal to our function, but of events constructed or self-inflicted, if you will, that result from the burden of choice,” explains filmmaker Mark Solter.
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Roman Angelos adds, “It was a great experience working with Mark Solter on this video. He understood the nature of this piece immediately and it took little to no explanation as to how it should be translated to video. Mark’s work adds in another dimension to this music; the things that submerge us in life, not just the bigger questions, but our everyday struggles as well.”
‘Supermarkets, Underwater’ is out now, available everywhere digitally, including Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp. With distribution by Cargo Records, the CD is available exclusively via Bandcamp.
TRACK LIST
1. Foghorns (Low Order Mix)
2. Entrance (Solution Dilution Mix)
3. The Looking Glass (Agile Peer Mix)
4. Swimming Through The Aisles (Teeming Mix)
5. Dreaming in the Lake (Palsied Mirror Mix)
6. Abyssal Plain (Backmasking Mix)
7. The Aimless Aquanaut (Riptide and Rumble Mix)
8. Le Plongeur (Pearlescent Pulses Mix)
9. The Underwater Supermarket (Thierry de Mer Mix)
ALBUM CREDITS
All remixes by Scott Solter
Written by Rich Bennett and Scott Solter
Produced by Rich Bennett at Acme Hall Studios, Brooklyn
Original recordings by Colin Marston
Released by Happy Robots Records (Catalogue No. Bot39a)
Distribution by Cargo Records
Cover artwork by Martin J Langthorne
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