Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Gulag Orkestar
2. Prenzlauerberg
3. Brandenburg
4. Postcards From Italy
5. Mount Wroclai (Idle Days)
6. Rhineland (Heartland)
7. Scenic World
8. Bratislava
9. Bunker
10. Canals Of Our City
11. After The Curtain

Disc 2:

1. Elephant Gun
2. My Family's Role In The World Revolution
3. Scenic World
4. Long Island Sound
5. Carousels

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1093 in Music
• Released on: 2006-11-06
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Special Edition

Customer Reviews

East European-tinged music that will leave you Hungary for more
Beirut, as well as being a geo-political hotspot, is the name adopted by the prodigiously-talented Zach Condon for his musical ensemble.

Condon is a 20-year-old stripling from New Mexico who is bizarrely, but encouragingly, obsessed with traditional East European music. Addled by gypsy Romanticism (to the extent that the sleeve notes tell us that the front and back photos were "found in a library in Leipzig torn out of a book") he has produced a remarkable album.

This intoxicating Balkan stew was mostly recorded in his Albuquerque bedroom. Multi-instrumentalist Condon plays trumpet, ukulele, piano, accordion, mandolin and percussion in addition to providing the marvellously plaintive vocals. He's backed by a superb band of Romany-influenced musicians.

This is Condon's third album (following the eclectic pairing of an electronica debut and a doo-wop sophomore effort) and this brisk stroll into the uncharted territory of Balkania comes from so far out of left field it could seem to be wilfully obscurist.

It's all the better for it. The opening track (The Gulag Orkestar) with its lamenting trumpets and discordant piano sounds like an anthem for the cancer-stricken and it's followed by a succession of supremely emotive pieces. It isn't all Slavic melancholia by any means though; much of the slightly ramshackle music is positively beautiful.

Condon is definitely one to keep under close observation. It's tremendously impressive that rather than being moody, cladding himself in black, listening to The Smiths and writing poetry in inclement weather his teenage miserabilism manifested itself in a superbly affecting piece of work that creates a soundscape of dissonant orotund swirls.

This was released earlier in the year in the US and has been receiving rave word-of-mouth reviews. It's now re-released with a five track EP tagged on as an extra. Entitled Lon Gisland E.P. (where Condon is now resident) this is a slightly more commercial variation with Condon's vocals more to the fore, thus losing a certain ethereal quality and sounding less like the signatories of the Brest-Litovsk treaty tumbling into damnation and singing about it. You won't hear as good an album all year. It's an essential purchase.

Orkestaral Favourites
Beirut is essentially one man: Zach Condon, and this is Beirut's debut album. "Gulag Orkestar" draws a lot of inspiration from Balkan folk music and had a pleasingly homemade air about it. Hearing it almost takes you to a café looking onto a square in Sarajevo, slightly sozzled after a few too many Fernet Brancas, and perfectly happy about that.

A lucky find
Thought I'd go out on a limb and buy this based on its cover art. On first listen I thought, mistake. To my surprise, after a few listens these songs became the prettiest ditties. Imagine Talking heads unplugged but with Balkan Instruments. Yes Please and an extra falaffel while you're at it. Postcards from Italy was the first to sink its claws in but from then on it all started to make sense. If you're looking for something a little obscure but extremely special, this is your deep fried feta.