Supreme Beings of Leisure – 11i (Rykodisc)

Feb 12, 2008

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Do you ever sense the same nostalgia when listening to new music that you might about your own family history? Do you ever find yourself mapping out a musical family tree to get an understanding of the relationships between artists? Well, maybe not, but maybe you should. For the Los Angeles electronic music scene, you need to take a course in genealogy just to follow all of the divorces and marriages that have occurred.

For example, what wedding resulted from the breakup of the act Oversoul 7, which later created a unison called Lazy, after which another new unison was created between the duo act of Bitter:Sweet? If you said Supreme Beings of Leisure, then you have grasped the kinship. SBL’s new release 11i tells a more detailed story of where they are amongst their family and friends of electronic/trip-hop.

SBL combine the efforts of singer and songwriter Geri Soriano-Lightwood and electronic musical programming of Ramin Sakurai. These two have released the successful self-titled debut and a follow-up entitled Divine Operating System. 11i is actually a play on the Roman numeral III to document their third creation and at the same time display the importance of the number 11. It is Geri’s day of birth. It’s Ramin’s day of birth. There are 11 tracks on the album just like every other release. Need I say more?

11i picks up where a James Bond soundtrack might have left off. It’s may be little coincidence however, as it was an opportunity to submit a song for inclusion in a James Bond soundtrack that was the catalyst behind Supreme Beings of Leisure forming in the first place. Visions of fantastical gadgets emerge in a world of espionage as Geri’s vocals are wrapped around Ramin’s techy work. In fact, maybe we should be calling Ramin, Q. His programming is not top secret nor does it necessarily deliver a license to kill. But, the creation is entertaining. At times, the music is reminiscent. It evokes a familiar sound not unlike Garbage’s Version 2.0. 11i may be predictable like Bond’s shaken martini, but SBL have modernized these sounds of the past into something Broccoli will probably request for his next feature.