Rostam Batmanglij might not be a name familiar to some of you. On the other hand, you might be like "hey, that's guy out of that Vampire Weekend lot". And you'd be right. He seems to be perpetually busy making music either in that band or his other band Discovery or as a "Converse All Star" or producing others. He's unveiled a couple of his own tracks lately, which you can listen to below.
'Don't Let It Get To You' is the most recent track, although I use the word "recent" rather loosely as I found videos of him performing the track live (in his Boys Like Us guise) from as early as May 2010. There's strong hints of Animal Collective, combined with his penchant for sweeping strings that made much of the debut Vampire Weekend so wondrous.
Equally wondrous is the Asian-infused 'Wood', with its pleasingly unexpected sitar and tabla rhythms. It's more subdued than 'Don't Let It Get To You' but in that arresting fashion that makes you switch everything else off and really sit down and listen. Just listen.
Stream both tracks below and download 'Wood' for free. No news on a forthcoming solo album, nor a Vampire Weekend return but let's hope both will arrive in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, we can also enjoy ROSTAM's excellent version of the Vampire Weekend track 'Campus'.
STREAM: Don't Let it Get to You by ROSTAM
FREE DOWNLOAD: ROSTAM - Wood by ROSTAM
Find more on ROSTAM at Tumblr.
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