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Austin Live Music >
Austin Bands >B >Beirut
Gulag Orkestar
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Beirut Album Review:
You can breathe easier now at 2006-06-06
This is hands down, the album of the year. Every song is a mini-masterpiece. After you buy the album sit down and listen to each and every song. The music of Beirut fills your head and awakens your soul. Its an experience listening to this album and an experience youll want to re-live over and over and over.....If you dont see this album on top ten lists all over the globe Id find myself in state of bewilderment. The only way that could happen is if nobody got the chance to listen to Gulag Orkestar. Buy it, buy it, buy it. Its different but these days its just what we need.If you need a song to start with: Mount Wroclai - if you like it youll love the rest. Guaranteed.
Beirut Album Review:
Eh. at 2006-07-19
Bloggers have been hyping this thing for a while, so I bought it, but found it to be more or less a standard indie attempt at complex instrumentation. Its interesting, but its nothing special.
Beirut Album Review:
Beautiful Beirut at 2006-07-14
Ovo je album koji obara na prvo slusanje. Nesto najbolje sto se desilo u 2006 pored albuma Rabbit Fur Coat. Amerikanac koji je inspirisan Balkanom, album nastao u Mexicu, a on nastupa pod imenom Beirut... :)Odlicno i uvrnuto!Najbolje novo ime na muzickoj sceni!
Beirut Album Review:
remarkable debut... at 2006-06-14
Being a fan of world music and Indie, I find this album really a striking one. The special vocals immediately made me think of Rufus Wainwright, Beiruts tone of voice + melody lines, but without the bombast and technique of Rufus. Luckely. Because thats the whole charm of this CD; the friction between Beiruts soft timid singing, versus the loud brassy music. They meet eachother in a fragile, strong feeling/ introvert --- extrovert. -In other words, the not so steady singing, the not so steady music, is where Beirut becomes one for me as a listener.Therefore, also compliments for the albums production, overal it sounds very spontaneously and open. ...Thats perhaps the hardest thing to catch on a record IMO, but they managed to keep Beiruts fun, soul and essence. ~Chapeau!All songs put together; a remarkable piece of work and absolutely worth buying/ a must have for your collection when interested in world music and/or Indie. This combines the two in a very creative and surprising way.
Beirut Album Review:
Play, Orkestar! at 2006-06-14
To be honest, when I think of Elephant 6 bands I dont usually think of Balkan folk music. But with the release of Beiruts Gulag Orkestar, I may have to revise my thinking.This new band consists of teenage musician Zach Condon, along with people from Neutral Milk Hotel and A Hawk and a Hacksaw, making bittersweet folkpop and danceable marches. Imagine a band of slightly drunk gypsies on parade, and youll have the general idea of how it sounds.It opens slow, with a gentle piano and blaring horns. The title track meanders in circles and finally dies away... only to be reborn as a swaying march. Halfway through, Condon joins in with some mournful wails and equally mournful singing. That turns around in Prenzluerberg, where the singing is just as melancholy, but the music is a cheerier march.From there on, the trio tries out those styles and everything in between -- rattly folk with tambourines and horns, danceable folkpop, and tinkly klezmer music. Yes, tinkly klezmer. They get downright happy in Scenic World, a colorful glockenspiel song that is just barely grounded by some quick violins. After that, Gulah Orkestar is pretty upbeat, with a string of swaying marches and upbeat folk acoustics. The albums finale is a bit of a head-scratcher, though. After the Curtain is a relatively bare-bones song with Condon singing over applause and a dancing glockenspiel. I dont know how to fit that one in.Basically this album is what happens when an American teenager drops out and crosses Eastern Europe, soaking up the folk music as he goes. And its a good thing Condons musical talents are being backed by experienced musicians, so we can get a bittersweet, atmospheric taste of whatever he heard there. The main problem is that the less folky songs dont really fit in -- without them, the album would have been a lot better. But as it is, its a remarkable achievement.Condon has a pretty deep voice for someone so young, and he fills it with the longing and beauty that traditional singing often has. And hes assisted by some very talented musicians: Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost, both of whom work in the psych-folk band A Hawk and a Hacksaw. So of course, they have a good ear for this sort of thing.So how do they manage? Soundwise, its like someone took the gypsy out of Gogol Bordello and slapped it on Neutral Milk Hotel. The songs are brimming with violins, horns, accordion, mandolin, pianos, ukeleles, glockenspiel and many others. These instruments are so smoothly blended that it sounds like at least a dozen people are playing at any one time, and that theyve played this music their whole lives.Gulag Orkestar is a pretty, heart-tugging album that will make you think of quaint European villages in the springtime. Definitely worth listening to, many times.
Beirut Album Editorial:
While it may sound like an entire Balkan gypsy orchestra playing modern songs as mournful ballads and upbeat marches Beiruts first album Gulag Orkestar is largely the work of one 19-year-old Albuquerque native Zach Condon with assistance by Jeremy Barnes (Neutral Milk Hotel A Hawk and a Hacksaw) and Heather Trost (A Hawk and a Hacksaw). Horns violins cellos ukuleles mandolins glockenspiels drums tambourines congas organs pianos clarinets and accordions (no guitars on this album!) all build and break the melodies under Condons deep-voiced crooner vocals swaying to the Eastern European beats like a drunken 12-member ensemble that has fallen in love with The Magnetic Fields Talking Heads and Neutral Milk Hotel.
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