It’s become a regular occurrence to hear of side projects from the busy bees that make up Vampire Weekend. We were huge fans of the electro pop that the brilliantly-named keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij created with kind-of-supergroup Discovery. Front man Ezra Koenig (again great work from the parents) has helped out many a musical pal. He has played saxophone for The Dirty Projectors, has apparently worked as an intern for The Walkmen, and provided vocals for The Very Best’s top hit ‘The Warm Heart Of Africa’.
Now it’s time for bassist Chris Baio to step forward. Straying not too far away from some of the more West African-influenced tracks penned during his day job, ‘Baio’, as he’s calling himself, has brought out an EP that might just be the perfect ‘start of the summer’ listen. The highlight for us, ‘Sunburn Modern’, is unbelievably tropical. It’s got bongos, it’s got steel drums, it’s even got a little bit of xylophone. He’s injected the tune with a catchy looped vocal and it’s all centred around an infectious bassline.
The ‘Sunburn EP’ is out now on Greco-Roman, home to HD favs such as Joe Goddard and T.E.E.D. It’s a sun-kissed, Balearic gem – and you probably need it in your life.
