Excerpt: “Beautiful summery album from the New York composer and multi-instrumentalist. The first surprise is that Mr Bennett has an appealingly reedy voice (sometimes reminiscient of Bob Mould, to my ears), for someone whose last album was wholly instrumental. Like that album, the Beach Boys’ trademark left-right keyboard alternations are evident here, along with some pleasantly disorientating slide guitar. There’s the wonderful wooziness of ‘EPO’, with its whistled main melody and dreamy high-register synths, recalling Angelo Badalamenti soundtracks (indeed, the instrumental coda, ‘Green Memories’, with its ominous, shifting keyboard patterns, would be right at home in a David Lynch film.) The samba shuffle of ‘Night Part 1′ also stands out, with a beautiful vibes arrangement, capped with an ecstatic double saxophone solo over church organ. The overall mood though, despite the uplifting textures, is something like displacement, which after all is one effect of being on holiday. Highly recommended.”

Underground of Happiness

Excerpt: “Rich Bennett… claims Martin Denny as an influence, although there isn’t really much in common with the maestro… as what we have here is much darker in tone bearing more resemblance to an amalgam of left of centre troubadours like Baltimore’s The Agrarians and the Mamas and the Papas.  The screwed up uncomfortableness of ‘Wild Ride’ is a good example of this… A dramatic, in the theatrical sense, right turn takes place with ‘The Peak’ taking us off in to a lo-fi journey into ambient electronica before ‘Night Pt1′ and ‘Night Pt2′ heads off into the arena of a soundtrack to a really cool sixties European movie… Much of the pleasure derived from it comes from the vocal interplay between the downbeat Mr Bennett and the civilised Rebecca Pronsky, but the lasting value comes from the almost wilful obscurity of it all. I can’t supply scientific proof but, trust me, it just works.”

Bluesbunny

“The side project of Rich Bennett from Monocle makes music that brings together the sophisticated pop soundtracks of Burt Bacharach and Ennio Morricone with the electronic detail of Stereolab and Delia Derbyshire. Debut release ‘Music For Underwater Supermarkets’ features full tracks embellished with horns, vibraphone and flutes divided by minimal soundscape experiments. It works well, providing a respite to either style and keeping ears turned on. If you’re a fan of retro-futurist pop such as the High Llamas then this will be up your aisle.”

Proper Songs

Excerpt: “The album retains many of the softer sensibilities that his other outfit [Monocle] displays, but keeps them on an even more cerebral level, free of vocals and full of jazzy, nuanced explorations… The album contains no filler – each track, no matter its length, supports its weight in the precious sequencing that defines a large part of this record… a fuzzy trip through the cartoon movie soundtrack of Bennett’s psyche. Perhaps he was left waiting a little too long in his mother’s shopping cart, listening to MIDI versions of Stereolab at the market. Gazing upon an antiquated aquarium, he began to formulate his first thoughts of traversing the sonic boundaries of an Underwater Supermarket in his mind.”

Jezebel Music