In 2008 Rich Bennett made music for underwater supermarkets (See: Music For Underwater Supermarkets). The idea, much like Eno's classic Music for Airports, was to hijack the decidedly pedestrian muzak piped into supermarkets and elevators (the long polyester arm of capitalism) and filter it through the murky gauze of childhood memories centered around shopping. Bennett is no stranger to creating music that succeeds when it doesn't call attention to itself. He is responsible for scoring MTV's Chris Brown Super Sweet 16 (by far his best work)! Underwater Supermarkets was an album full of shiny, lounge-tinged pop tunes that insiduously buried themselves into your brain. Misplaced melodies of his childhood were as ephemeral and wispy the songs off of Music for Underwater Supermarkets.
With On Holiday Bennett continues to explore unpopular musical genres that move between shuffling bossa nova tempos, lounge room sambas, mid-tempo alt-country numbers and a civilized foray into Komische-style synth drones in an attempt to...well....
This is where I get fuzzy on the whole concept. Music that is so, so... institutional, should have some sort of ideological subversion going on, right? I mean The Minutemen did some weirdly sterilized lounge stuff while demanding an end to the U.S government's involvement in the support of El Salvador's fascist regime. There is none of that on this album. Instead, the conceptual force behind this record (there is one) is about stepping outside (or out of) work, quite literally, about taking a holiday (the great proletarian carrot). By showing how peaceful a weekend in the country is why should you go back on monday to a job you hate? I guess On Holiday is a little more subversive than I first gave it credit for. The idea is ground breakingly simple and direct. Following suit, On Holiday steers for musical neutrality, making every instrument and rhythm sound amazingly distinct and transparent in a decade of songwriting bent on obfuscating the most basic musical moves.
Incorporating a much deeper back-end than 2008's Underwater Supermarkets, On Holiday is more than the sum of its much maligned rhythmic inspirations. In fact, much of the album sounds completely pastoral, equally matching the title. Songs like the wonderful opener "Misty Valley" open up with a reverb-drenched lead guitar line and laid back bass that recall some of the best moments of make-out music kings The Sea and Cake's later work. Songs like "Back Around" and "Night Part 1" have ample room for sweeping synth lines on the first and a twin-tracked sax solo in the latter track. Bennett's voice never strains to keep up with the relaxed canter of his songs and sounds oddly similar to the ruddy baritone of XTC's Andy Partridge. On Holiday never sounds like an experiment or a manifesto, it is too good for that. It simply swings on its own between scenic mountain drives and the neon-lit palm trees of a smoky Sunset Strip juke joint. It is both of those things and more.
Ryan H.
On Holiday is out on Australian label Hidden Shoal.
Listen to "Misty Valley" below courtesy of Hidden Shoal.