Beirut Gulag Orkestar CD

Beirut: Zach Condon.
Personnel: Zach Condon (vocals, mandolin, ukulele, accordion, trumpet, piano, organ, percussion); Heather Trost (violin); Perrin Cloutier (cello).
Additional personnel: Jeremy Barnes, Heather Trost.
Audio Mixer: Josh Clark .
Recording information: Albuquerque, NM (2005); Seaside Lounge, Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY (2005).
The debut of singer/multi-instrumentalist Zach Condon (aka Beirut), 2006's GULAG ORKESTAR marks the arrival of a precocious talent. It's a lushly arranged album that reveals Condon's unabashed adoration of Eastern European folk music, gilded with swaying accordion lines, rapturous string passages, and jangling percussion that seem wholly rooted in traditional Slavic music (see the waltz-like "Prenzlauerberg")--making its creation by a young Europhile from New Mexico that much more impressive.
While there's little in the way of pop/rock influence in Beirut's instrumental approach, Condon sings in a low warble that recalls the Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt, showcasing his unrestrained flair for drama on tracks such as the tense "Brandenburg" and the swooning "Scenic World." Effectively displaying Condon's considerable abilities, GULAG ORKESTAR is a fully formed first outing that is sure to appeal to many fans of ornate and adventurous indie-pop.
The best album to come out of Albuquerque since the Shins decamped for the Pacific Northwest, the debut album by Beirut (aka New Mexico-born 19-year-old singer/songwriter Zach Condon) bears an immediate resemblance both to Denver's DeVotchKa and the current passions of the Athens, GA, crowd formerly associated with the Elephant 6 stable. Like DeVotchKa, Condon is heavily influenced by Eastern European folk music and, to a lesser extent, the mariachi trumpets and Latin rhythms of the desert Southwest: the songs on Gulag Orkestar are lousy with mandolins and similarly plinky members of the string instrument family, accordions, horns, and hand percussion clearly played with dramatic in-studio arm flourishes. But like the Athens folks (some of whom appear here in a supporting role, most notably A Hawk and a Hacksaw's Jeremy Barnes), Condon isn't interested in mere approximations of traditional forms. Condon and friends use the folk instruments primarily as really cool-sounding textures, exotic backdrops for Condon's melodic indie folk tunes and impressionistic lyrics. The lyrics, it must be said, are the album's most obvious flaw, clearly the work of a young, romantically inclined teen who has never been to Europe but has seen a lot of foreign art films about, like, Gypsies 'n' stuff. Ignore the clunky lyrics -- easy enough to do since Condon is an unexpectedly appealing singer with a rich, mellifluous voice that, no kidding, recalls the great bel canto crooners of the pre-rock era (along with a little Nick Cave) -- and Gulag Orkestar is an infinitely more appealing album. ~ Stewart MasonRolling Stone (p.90) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Chock-full of accordion, brass noise and Condon's sinewy murmur, the album has got melancholic Easter Euro charm from here to Kiev."
Q (p.141) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] astonishingly moving distillation of Eastern European melancholia with elegant histrionics."
Magnet (p.103) - "[W]hen 19-year-old New Mexico native Zach Condon (a.k.a. Beirut) takes accordion-led waltzes and gypsy stomps for a spin on this debut, they sound exciting rather than exhumed."