Lately, I’ve taken to reading Spiegel Online, the web-based offering of German news magazine Der Spiegel, as a means of procrastinating during my library job. It’s always really rewarding when I can get through a whole article, but it has the nasty habit of worsening my already crippling wanderlust.
The Kultur (culture) section of Spiegel Online publishes a weekly article titled “Die wichtigsten CDs der Woche,” or “The Most Important CDs of the Week,” a smattering of (mostly) hip albums released that week. It’s generally stuff that I’ve heard of, or something that I imagine NPR would really be into.
This Monday, I stumbled upon the debut album from Discovery, the electronic twosome of Rostam Batmanglij and Wes Miles, of Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot, respectively. It’s a lot like what I imagine Hot Chip to sound like if they were given an 808 synthesizer and told to be really over the top, which has its hits and misses. The album fluctuates back and forth between super-catchy and trying-too-hard, but if you don’t take it too seriously, it’s a really fun listen.
Regardless, there is something to be said for a few of the tracks, “So Insane” and “Swing Tree” being two of my favorites. The rest of the album, released stateside on Tuesday, is available to purchase or stream online from their website.
GIN OCEAN 