Since Rostam Batmanglij officially went solo in January of last year, the New Yorker has been busy. A production CV that already boasted work with Frank Ocean and Solange Knowles has added RAC, Haim and indie dreamboy du jour Declan McKenna, and while his debut solo album ‘Half-Light’ features music that has been released over the past six years, it is clearly the result of intense studio workshopping.
The result is hugely imaginative record in terms of both production and arrangement, but one lacking in the songwriting guile of previous releases with Vampire Weekend.
Different world music textures are deployed throughout, with South American, Indian and Middle Eastern tropes and instruments utilised with varying impact. One excellent example is Wood, where Rostam’s laconic singing is married with tabla, sitar and dholaks.
It’s a highly distinctive musical melange, and while the track feels like a brilliant b-side due to its lack of lyrical punch, the patience and elegance of the composition is something to behold.
Elsewhere, Gwan hitches a straight pop melody to swirling strings and gorgeous romantic lyrics: “Don't listen to me, I only believe myself / So I'm going somewhere to do that alone / And then I see you, the light falls through the room / And all of it don't seem so hard.” It finds its way to a boldly complex string digression, before returning to a confounding, underwhelming Coldplay-like outro.
Perhaps the best example of the hit and miss quality of ‘Half-Light’ comes on Don’t Let It Get To You, which utilises a sample of Brazilian drumming troupe Olodum’s performance on Paul Simon’s The Obvious Child. There is absolutely nothing wrong with aping your heroes, but when doing so it is critical that the new iteration either updates or dynamically alters the original musical vibe.
Don’t Let It Get To You does neither. Actually, one could be forgiven for thinking this track was released before Simon’s 1990 song, which is more lyrically intriguing, melodically focused and spikily performed.
It seems very harsh to criticise any musician for not stepping up to the level of a great like Paul Simon, and it’s certainly true that ‘Half-Light’ goes in directions Rostam’s fellow New Yorker would never consider. Tracks like Hold You and When deploy arresting hip hop elements, for example.
But, time and again, truly creative arrangements and production are let down by songs that don’t quite connect. The strength in Simon’s work with Olodum, for example, was the depth to which he plunged himself into Brazilian culture when making the album 'Rhythm of the Saints'. Rostam’s engagement with different flavours appears a little like dilettantism by comparison, which would be fine were the comparisons not so striking.
Rostam Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Tue November 14 2017 - LONDON Courtyard Theatre
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