Beirut - March of the Zapotec and RealPeople Holland (Pompeii)
4/5
By: Matt Tomiak
Upon listening to these two EPS from Zach Condon, AKA Beirut, and being afforded a glimpse into his latest globe-trotting musical mission, an article by the esteemed American pop-cultural scribe Chuck Klosterman comes to mind. Some years ago Klosterman wrote a memorable account of one of the more intriguing modern musical phenomena to be found in the United States: the devoted mass following enjoyed by Morrissey amongst Los Angeles' young Hispanic community. These youthful Latinos, Klosterman suggested, were drawn to the former leader of The Smiths' sense of outsiderdom and personal marginalization, as well as a mutual understanding of the immigrant experience. Whether precocious Santa Fe native Condon himself feels a comparable sense of cultural ambivalence is open to debate, but having utilized Eastern Europe and France's rich heritage and for his previous Gulag Orkestar and The Flying Club Cup albums respectively, we find him continuing his quest against hyper-imperial American hegemony in Oaxaca, Meixco.
CD1, March of the Zapotec employs the services of the multi-faceted Mexican ensemble Band Jimenez, and fittingly Condon's vocals are fuller and more confident than on past outings: the swoonsome 'La Llorona' and jaunty waltz 'The Shrew' are highlights of part one of this release. The second disc, Holland is credited to Condon's "RealPeople" solo alias. Opening with the salaciously titled 'My Night with the Prostitute from Marseille', which does in fact generate Postal Service-style wistfulness, it's a collection of above-par electronic pop. 'My Wife, Lost in the Wild' is in the same ballpark as Bright Eyes' electro-album Digital Ash in A Digital Urn, and with just a dash of Brandon Flowers' melodramatic nonsense lyrics, the synth-driven, Hi-NRG flavoured instrumental 'No Dice' wouldn't have felt out of place on the last Killers record.
A young man with a nomadic sense of wonder in addition to a keen awareness of, and appreciation for non-Western music, Condon is following in the grandest American musical melting-pot tradition; a worthy successor to the early 20thcentury jazz innovators of Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans, the post-war blend of R&B, country and western and gospel that arose from the south, and post-punk's embrace of African forms. This intriguing collection showcases Beirut as a quintessentially cosmopolitan, assimilated Obama-era American act.
Artists in this article: Beirut
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