Discovery - LP

Like a bizarre hybrid of slick American R&B and plaintive blue-eyed indie, Discovery is the joint product of Vampire Weekend keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij and Ra Ra Riot singer Wes Miles. It’s a stylistically simple affair, with the innocent-sounding, frequently cut-up vocals backed up by spacey, bubbly samples floating about over syncopated programmed beats, chunky keyboard chords and not a lot else. It’s the sort of music that the word “twee” was invented for, along with “fey” and “whimsical”. As a side project, it’s fairly lightweight: one track is called I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend and comes with the requisite “ooh baby baby baby”-ing. Although it’s all very pretty, LP doesn't require too much involvement on the listener's part. It brings to mind the electronic outings of Postal Service, whose fans will probably find more to get into here than anyone looking for what you might have expected of this collaboration.