NYC Artist
BENTA
Releases a Film Noir-Inspired Video for
“Road with Seven Lanes”
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Multi-instrumentalist and producer BENTA debuted his artistic new music video for “Road With Seven Lanes” on MILK. This video maintains the B&W, mysterious vibe while building a sense of ominous drama and tension, holding true to his mystifying aesthetic.
“Being such a rhythmically focused track, we wanted to capture that rhythm through the video so we have elements of really cool, super-modern dance that peek through and tons of hard cuts in the edit to emphasize the percussion and the breaks. I wanted to really ensure that, like with everything we do, we pushed the boundaries in terms of the artistic medium we’re communicating through. I’m really happy with the expression here and the visceral sense you get from the video coupled with the song.” – BENTA
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“Road with Seven Lanes”, which first hit the public last month on The Line of Best Fit, is the first official release since BENTA’s 2016 EP, Noir.
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“The new track pairs deliberate beats with echoing, melodic vocals that weave in and out of 80s-influenced synths reminiscent of the soundtrack to Netflix’s Stranger Things.” –Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit
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“Lover in Dark“, a single off of Noir, saw huge success as well – The music video originally premiered on Earmilk followed by remixes from AObeats, Breathe Carolina, Gill Chang and more, resulting in over 3 million streams with Spotify and SoundCloud combined.
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“Road With Seven Lanes” is now available at all digital retailers.
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ABOUT BENTA:
Night time teems with possibilities. Underneath its blanketing presence we can be ourselves, indulge our love, and chase our passions. We toil through the day with a mask on, making ends meet, trying to be positive, and, often, suppressing our aggression and our creativity- But the night is ours. For the artist simply known as Benta, seizing the night became a reality two years ago after a dream. Previously, the artist had left behind a successful music career that developed during his teenage years. Through mad scientist sessions with a drum machine, analog synths, and recording hardware, he’s reemerged with an aesthetic that melds indie pop song structures with rugged hip-hop beats. Lyrically, this is a dark catharsis for Benta. He uses music to sublimate his aggression through depicting shadowy snapshots of characters struggling with toxic interpersonal and interpersonal dynamics.
In a former life, the artist behind Benta was a signed musician by the age of 15. Six years later, he stepped away from music completely, and it would be years before he returned.
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“Two years ago, I was in a London hotel, and I had this dream where the project name came to me. It felt like a sign from somewhere. Before that, I felt this void in my life. I felt really depressed.” – Benta
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Slowly, the artist found salvation picking out melodies on the piano, but he truly began the path to Benta when he started exploring the compositional possibilities of drum loops, sampling technology, and analog synths. Through producing, composing, and creating each track’s soundscape, Benta began to nurture a signature aesthetic. Benta’s catalog of music encompasses the grit of Timbaland-style beats with mournfully melodic vocals, lush EDM textures, strains of 1980s dark wave and new wave, and a meticulous sense of indie-pop song structure. Conceptually, the lyrics are somberly poetic with a chilling sense of drama haunting the sonic snapshots and story lines.
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“A lot these songs are about the things we keep inside,”
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Standouts among the first selection of songs Benta will be releasing include the dreamy debut single “Lover In Dark,” the R&B-tinged “Too Far To The Right,” and the gloomy grandeur of “Hand Grenade.” “Lover In Dark” offers a voyeuristic perspective of two lovers grappling with an explosive tangle feelings. The chorus’s infectious dance-pop hook offsets the sinister verses like a sonic manic-depressive episode. The sleekly soulful “Too Far To Right” with glacial melodicism outlines a story of violent love. Intriguingly, just when things feel ill fated in the narrative, the song offers a moment of cold-sweat salvation. The spectral EDM-pop ballad “Hand Grenade,” however, fades fully to black. Here, the story is of inward struggle. As Benta edges into the daylight of the real world with music releases and gigs, the artist ponders his path.
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“Sometimes life doesn’t go as planned, and you have to be a night owl to do what you love. If you’re passionate about something,go after it. I hope my path inspires people to do follow their dreams without giving up. You can have the best of both worlds”
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