{"id":664,"date":"2017-05-16T17:31:03","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T22:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=664"},"modified":"2019-12-17T20:32:13","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T01:32:13","slug":"review-rostam-the-sinclair-0508","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2017\/05\/16\/review-rostam-the-sinclair-0508\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: ROSTAM, Nat Baldwin @ the Sinclair 05\/08"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo
Photo by Caroline Barry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Monday, May 8 I had the pleasure of attending the final night of Rostam Batmanglij\u2019s first solo tour. The musician was a long-time member of Vampire Weekend, but publicly announced his departure in January of 2016. Batmanglij has since been working toward producing his first solo album, which he plans to release late this summer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if you\u2019re not a die-hard Vampire Weekend fan like I am, you\u2019ve definitely heard Rostam\u2019s talents throughout his many projects over his ten-year career: Batmanglij released an album as side project Discovery with Ra Ra Riot\u2019s lead Wes Miles in 2009, and later held producer and vocal credits on Ra Ra Riot\u2019s single 2015 \u201cWater\u201d; he composed the score for Netflix\u2019s <\/span>The OA<\/span><\/i> (which his brother, Zal created and directs); he produced songs for Charlie XCX, Solange, Francis and the Lights, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Frank Ocean; he was recently featured on RAC\u2019s pop track \u201cThis Song\u201d; and he collaborated with Hamilton Leithauser (of The Walkmen) for their debut album, <\/span>I Had A Dream That You Were Mine.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The concert had an exceptionally simple construction in contrast to the complex and intricate arrangement style of most of Rostam\u2019s music. Batmanglij\u2019s opening act Nat Baldwin\u2014old friends, both being past members of indie rock band Dirty Projectors\u2014was a pleasant treat. Baldwin and his standing bass comprised the whole act. In between each of his simple songs, the Portland, Maine native shared some stories of finding himself lost in the streets of Cambridge.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo by Caroline Barry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Afterward, Batmanglij strolled in with a skilled four-piece orchestral arrangement to support his soft vocals. His set list included previous singles: \u201cWood,\u201d \u201cEOS,\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t Let It Get To You,\u201d which returned for a finale reprise. The audience started small but slowly grew and crowded around the stage for an intimate show. Batmanglij\u2019s voice was clear and balanced the strings beside him. Each song was introduced humbly, preceded with a \u201chere\u2019s the next one.\u201d Rostam\u2019s music ranges from heavily digital to powerfully political; one of the new tracks he premiered, \u201cWhen,\u201d appeared to be a commentary on the current Middle Eastern refugee situation. Batmanglij\u2019s parents immigrated to the United States from Iran, and his Middle Eastern culture continues to shine through on many of his pieces.<\/span><\/p>\n

The song I was highly anticipating was \u201cGwan,\u201d the most recently released single. Its airy strings and soft chorus have joyful springtime vibes. The song has some strong similarities to the style of Vampire Weekend\u2019s third album, <\/span>Modern Vampires of the City<\/span><\/i>: jumpy violins, gentle piano chords and some friendly self-retrospective lyrics. Hearing \u201cGwan\u201d live gave me chills, and I found my mouth hanging open in awe at the climactic parts of the song, particularly the broken-down ending.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, Batmanglij can\u2019t leave his Vampire Weekend roots behind: he sang \u201cYoung Lion\u201d off of the most recent VW album, <\/span>Modern Vampires of the City<\/span><\/i>. While Rostam\u2019s serene voice has complemented lead Ezra Koenig\u2019s more nasal-y voice throughout the three albums, \u201cYoung Lion\u201d is the only Vampire Weekend track to feature only Rostam. To the audience\u2019s surprise, the song had never been performed live by the band; \u201cYoung Lion\u201d has only been heard by attendees of Rostam\u2019s tour <\/span><\/p>\n

After the show, we exchanged some words with the big man himself. If you haven\u2019t given this wildly accomplished artist a listen, get familiar before his solo album arrives later this year.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

-Caroline Barry<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Monday, May 8 I had the pleasure of attending the final night of Rostam Batmanglij\u2019s first solo tour. The musician was a long-time member of Vampire Weekend, but publicly announced his departure in January of 2016. Batmanglij has since been working toward producing his first solo album, which he plans to release late this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525],"tags":[26,31,139,140,79,25],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":673,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions\/673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}