it's been a good 9 months since we've heard from vampire weekend, and i'd be lying if i didn't admit - i miss them a tad. that ivy league swing has a way of melting into the nooks of crannies in your mind, and unlike some i just loved contra - the band's growth from a one-note sound to the wildly eccentric, influence-hopping sound their sophomore album offered up struck a chord with me. classifying it with some of more experimental-soft-indie bands out there (here i refer you to appendix a: yeasayer, dirty projectors, yacht) contra was just so much more... digestable. the string arrangements added a delightful second layer to more than one track, and when i came across an eastern influence or two it brought a smile to my face, not a furrow to my brow. lord help me, but i am anglo-saxon to the core, and this form of musical colonialism just works for me.
anyhow, much of the advance in the bands's sound can likely be attributed to "multi-instrumentalist" (whatever that means) rostam batmanglij. like all good 21st century muses, the products of his mind cannot be contained therein, and must be spilled across today's moleskine notebook - the tumblr page. aside from from arrangement work on the side, he's also worked up a couple semi-instrumental tracks, wood and don't let it get to you. the former pulls heavily from bollywood with a smattering of that lovely wine-and-cheese string work that makes a lot of vampire weekend so cheeky, while the latter features an african-inspired machine-gun dreambeat that will have you struggling to keep still in your chair. i'd love to hear more 'weekend soon, but for now... this, this'll do.
rostam - wood
rostam - don't let it get to you
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