Beirut - Gulag Orkestar

€ 18

$ 21

€ 18 Sold For

Aug 2, 2018 Sold Date

Nov 10, 2016 Start Date

1 Number Of Bids

Switzerland Country Of Seller

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Description

Allgemein

Artikel Name: Gulag Orkestar
Genre: Rock englischsprachig Produkt Typ: LP (Vinyl) Label: 4 AD Titelanzahl: 11

Trackliste LP - 1

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

Beschreibung

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 Mason

Stewart Mason