Beirut "The Flying Club Cup"

Artist: Beirut
Album: The Flying Club Cup
Label: 4AD
Release date: 8 October 2007
Genre: Rock
Style: Balkans/Folk Rock

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Tracklisting:
01. A Call To Arms
02. Nantes
03. A Sunday Smile
04. Guyamas Sonora
05. La Banlieue
06. Cliquot
07. The Penalty
08. Forks And Knives (La Fête)
09. In The Mausoleum
10. Un Dernier Verre (Pour La Route)
11. Cherbourg
12. St. Apollonia
13. The Flying Club Cup
Total running time: 38' 34"

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[Beirut - The Penalty - Live in Brooklyn, NY]
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[Beirut - La Banlieue - Live in Brooklyn, NY]
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"Some people may mourn the passing of Zach Condon’s cottage-industry approach and makeshift binary orkestra, the occasionally cacophonous delivery, and earnestly clamoring and lo-fi arrangements that typified Gulag Orkestra—a result of the young musician’s inventiveness in the face of necessity. They added up to at least half the charm of Beirut’s terrific and much-acclaimed debut album from last year.

Of course those people are also missing something if they think that Condon’s second album, or, more appositely, Beirut’s first as a fully-fledged band, is somehow less charming, less idiosyncratic, less unique, and less wonderful simply because our magical conductor now has a full and very real band at his disposal rather than a cast of imagined musicians in his head.

Following on the heels of the Lon Gisland EP and the extensive, worldwide-touring that followed Gulag, The Flying Club Cup makes use of the friends, networks, and synergies put together to make his previously isolated adventures tangible, and in doing so improves it. It’s a simple formula—the songs are better, the melodies more memorable, the vocals stronger, the sound richer, the arrangements more rewarding.

To give some context, which I view pretty important to this whole “reviewing records” thing, I reviewed this album in the midst of a house-move, my music collection packed all away bar a handful of Beta Band, King Biscuit and Beirut CDs, my desktop computer boxed and debunked, myself perched on a beanbag with a laptop and a glass or eight of red wine. Listening to and writing about The Flying Club Cup in this context made an awful lot of sense; the waiting, the tidied disarray, the low light, the frantic sense that something, somewhere, must have been forgotten, the empty shelves, the rioja that slips across one’s tongue and down one’s throat just slightly too easily. The Flying Club Cup is a luxuriant, beautiful album, but also slightly distracted, otherwise occupied, busy.

Something else that makes a lot of sense is hearing Owen Pallet’s high, tremulous voice ring out with a sense of frosted drama above the accordions and beyond-the-Iron-Curtain martial drums of “Cliquot”; doubly so when you realise that it’s his wonderful, swirling and emotive string arrangements that run through half the record, helping to take the virtual kingdom of Gulag and turn it into a real place populated by accordions horns, pianos and voices—many, many voices.

The foremost of those voices being Zach Condon’s own, finally revealed in its full splendor as both delicate and powerful, capable of traversing melodic lines and riding tides of instruments and musical traditions that should be well beyond the common or garden college dropout from Albuquerque.

Inspired by a picture of hot air balloons by the Eiffel Tower that Condon kept pinned up in the studio (and everywhere else he recorded), The Flying Club Cup sees Condon’s picaresque folk wandering westwards from the Balkan sources of his debut album to take in sights, sounds, and scents more Gallic; Jacques Brel, conversational French, deep, taciturn burgundy clarets and light, dancing Beaujolais. The briefly ringing ukulele (or is it a mandolin?) charms and chides of “The Penalty,” the camp and elegiac drama of “Forks & Knives (La Fête),” the gently-breaking percussive waves and weirs of “Nantes,” the jazzy piano fills and audacious strings of “The Mausoleum,” the rolling farewells of “St. Apollonia”; Beirut here is taken of too much wine, swoonsome, romantic, decadent, observed, and wonderfuly so. The debut album was good, but this is better. Much, much better; the kind of record I will happily and willingly return to long after this review is dead and buried. Please, investigate, sup deeply, imbibe. The Flying Club Cup is a marvel." [source]

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See also: Beirut "Gulag Orkestar"

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Beirut "Lon Gisland"

Artist: Beirut
Album: Lon Gisland [EP]
Label: Ba Da Bing!
Release date: 30 January 2007
Genre: Rock
Style: Indie Rock/Balkans

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Tracklisting:
01. Elephant Gun
02. My Family's Role In The World Revolution
03. Scenic World
04. Long Island Sound
05. Carousels
Total running time: 16' 27"

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[Beirut - Elephant Gun - Video Clip]

"After the wild success of Gulag Orkestar, an album described (and derided) time and again as indie rock meets Balkan brass, authenticity becomes an issue in just about every Beirut review. Whether labeled "Gypsy Rock," Neutral Milk Hotel Jr., or flat-out village pillaging, Zach Condon's approach to songwriting's been questioned: Yup, the 20-year-old is from New Mexico and currently lives in New York. Yeah, he's a kid. So, based on that information, just what should his band sound like? In recent interviews Condon's discussed his interest in French pop and chanson. While that sound's yet to work its way into Beirut, this new EP includes some important upgrades.

Moving from his solo, Jeremy Barnes-accented bedroom recordings, Condon's now part of an eight-piece band. Smart move. Gulag showed promise and also limitations: In retrospect, the most intriguing sounds often amounted to ambient pastiche. Pretty but vacant. Now, a solid, pulsing group of players fleshing-out his songs, Condon opens to something less paint-by-numbers static-- it's more alive.

He shows, albeit briefly, that he can write songs without, as a friend called it, "that Beirut thing"-- i.e., not everything needs a quasi-Neutral Milk Hotel horn swell. But, note the subtle echo of On Avery Island in Lon Gisland, on which he even pokes fun at charges of cultural appropriation, transforming hairspray and pizza joints into foreign territory. Touché! Tellingly, the cover painting uses a collage technique to transport the band to a scene of black-and-white historical figures afloat in a green, green river.

It's a tiny offering, a 16-minute stopgap before the sophomore full-length scheduled for this fall. (The EP's been released in Europe as a part of Gulag Orkestar and as a one-side 12" by Chouette.) There are three new songs, a new incidental instrumental that echoes its neighbors, and a full-band remake of "Scenic World".

Opener "Elephant Gun" begins with that familiar ukulele sound and Condon giving his critics enough rope to hang themselves: "If I was young, I'd flee this town/ I'd bury my dreams underground." He's young... get over it. The song has joyousness to it-- it feels less downcast, nostalgic or mournful than the previous material; it's somehow more authentic for that. It's stately and deep, bottomed out with marching band drums, Condon's soaring vocals quaver. At the end, the track shifts gears, drifting into another flavor of accordion and horn.

A waltzing "Carousels" takes the listener to Coney Island with Morrissey to "watch the faces go 'round." Here, there's a whole lot of group singing. Musically, the repeated motifs are nice, showing Condon unafraid to really open up and play. A sound of water floats in the background-- but when you listen closer, it could also be the distant bustle of the city. It's hard to tell. Here, sounds are never clear-cut.

The incidental pieces are small but effective. "My Family's Role in the World Revolution", a polka piano rave-up, is an instrumental given signs of life with laughs and a sighing producer. Again, it's upbeat, opening up a riotous saw duster with Charlie Brown piano, glockenspiel, and martial beats. Tossed off, sure, but fun.

The other instrumental, "The Long Island Sound" plays on sound (something you hear, the physical space where you get wet, salt and fresh water mixing it up). You can make out water, or whatever, in the background as well as an echo of "Elephant Gun", an accordion and bass-trumpet reprise. It very much feels like it's coming over a wire recorder á la the Microphones. Like the other piece, it's a swatch of sound, another bit in the collage.

Most interesting is the band's new take on "Scenic World". For Gulag, it was the song that justifiably snagged Magnetic Fields comparisons. That cute lilt's been replaced with a slower, statelier unfurl: Condon comports himself in less bubbly way and any cartoonish residuals disappear in the slower pace. Also, tapping drum sticks are placed upfront and become a sort of undulating Indian percussion background; the original's horn parts are doubled on violin and accordion. Basically, you're hearing an older Beirut tuned played by a group, offering the listener a sense of community, rather than some kid alone in his room cuddling his 4-track. It's how this music should be experienced.

Lon Gisland marks a positive progression-- in these 16 minutes Condon has shown that, yes, there aresongs behind the international flavors, that his work would be interesting even if kept the trumpet at home. It's clear, too, just how much age and gravity he holds in his voice and not just the sound around him. Most important of all? It seems Condon's getting all this-- by embracing the developments, he's started to go beyond chewing the scenery to, well, actually living in it." [source]

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See also: Beirut "Gulag Orkestar"

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Beirut "Gulag Orkestar"

Artist: Beirut
Album: Gulag Orkestar
Label: Ba Da Bing!
Release date: 9 May 2006
Genre: Rock
Style: Indie Rock/Balkans

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Tracklisting:
01. The Gulag Orkester
02. Prenzlauerberg
03. Brandenburg
04. Postcards From Italy
05. Mount Wroclai (Idle Days)
06. Rhineland (Heartland)
07. Scenic World
08. Bratislava
09. The Bunker
10. The Canals Of Our City
11. After The Curtain
Total running time: 37' 25"

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"So here it is, the album that you’ve probably read about a thousand times already and serious contender for album of the year on numerous taste-making journals and blogs. Championed by the alternative music press as one of the finest records of the year, there’s a lot of hype surrounding Beirut (aka 19 year old American Zach Condon) and its magical blend of Baltic quirk, Klezmer timelessness and pop hooks. Helped along by Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeremy Barnes and A Hawk and a Haksaw’s Heather Trost, Beirut start proceedings with a modal fanfare of horns and piano, the mood already set for an utter blast. ‘Gulag Orkestar’ is an album that could have easily been recorded on cassette tape in eastern Europe 20 years ago, this is obviously the point – but it’s done with so much energy and quirky referencing that you’ll have probably never heard anything quite like it. Condon has somehow managed to distil his Slavic and Jewish traditional music influences into a coherent style, the tracks are concise and focused and the mood is so evocative it’s hard not to fall totally in love with it on first listen. This is an album that manages to sound like a cross between Goran Bregovic's genius soundtrack work for Emir Kusturica, Matt Elliott, The Arcade Fire and David Byrne's most inspired work - and will without a doubt continue to be talked about for months to come as one of the most enjoyable records of the year so far. Utterly Essential." [source]

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See also: Beirut "Lon Gisland"

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