Brooklyn lounge-chill artist Roman Angelos and electronic producer Scott Solter (St. Vincent, Maps & Atlases, Spoon, Superchunk, The Mountain Goats). have released their collaborative record ‘Supermarkets, Underwater’ via London label Happy Robots Records.
Roman Angelos will be touring select UK cities in June with label-mate Rodney Cromwell. Tickets for performances in London, Coventry, Reading and Todmorden can be obtained at www.happyrobots.co.uk/tickets.
The new album is a fully reimagined set of remixes of Roman Angelos’ 2022 album ‘Music For Underwater Supermarkets’, a 9-track offering that combines electronica and exotica, painting a sonic dreamscape that transposes the mundane act of grocery shopping to an aquatic utopian landscaping.
Here, Solter flips the script by transforming the bouncy and upbeat material of the original album into a darker and more ambient landscape. Weaving in noise and shifting electronic percussion, it’s an entirely new record. Listeners dive deeper into unknown waters, no longer shopping alongside the friendly fish.
Exploring Roman’s obsession with the library and soundtrack music, with unfashionable sonic influences from Burt Bacharach to Vangelis, this record was brilliantly received with Electronic Sound Magazine describing it as “an album of splendid vibes”.
Roman Angelos is the nom de plume of Brooklyn-based producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Rich Bennett, 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.
Lead track ‘Swimming Through The Aisles (Teeming Mix)’, along with a special live performance version of the remix. It uses the same irregular time signature and feel of the original, but adds in tremolo vibraphones, reverse guitars, and electronic drums, giving the music a new feel of exploration.
The original recordings were produced by Rich Bennett at Acme Hall Studios in Brooklyn and were recorded live to tape, all together in one room, by Colin Marston (Jarboe, Sailors With Wax Wings).
Beyond the world of library electronica, Rich Bennett has been involved in a diverse group of musical projects, including the newly reunited outsider / 60s proto-punk group The Shaggs, dream pop outfit Mahogany, and Brazilian funk group Limoncello, in addition to production work with Stereolab’s Morgane Lhote (aka Hologram Teen).
Roman’s previous releases for Happy Robots have gained praise from Electronic Sound Magazine, Hi-Fi World, Shindig! Magazine, The Electricity Club, Freq and The Haunted Generation, as well as BBC6 Music radio play from Gideon Coe, Cerys Matthews and Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone, plus Bob Fisher (BBC Tees).
‘Supermarkets, Underwater’ is out now, available everywhere digitally, including Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp. Released by Happy Robots Records with distribution by Cargo Records, the CD version will be available exclusively via the label’s 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)
TOUR DATES (with Rodney Cromwell)
Thu, June 8 LONDON – Servant Jazz Quarters
Fri., June 9 READING – Face Bar
Sat, June 10 COVENTRY – Just Dropped In
Sun, June 11 TORMODEN – The Golden Lion
