Beirut--March of the Zapotec/Holland

Happy Monday, Friends Recommend. In an unexpected turn of events I have decided to (at least occassionally) return to the original concept of FR and start dealing with these lists. Over the weekend I bought an album from emusic.com of this band Beirut that JESKa mentions in her list. She recommended the band and not an album in particular, so it figures that the album I bought was one that she hasn't heard. What can you do. She strongly recommends their first album though...she told me this.

I must admit that I was terribly confused at first listen. The album started with this great brass music, which had a really strong vibe of the streets of Mexico or Italy. Like some band of old men that just set up and started playing in the middle of the day. My reason for buying the album this past weekend is that I'm going to Italy and Switzerland in a week and a half and thought this music would 1) put me even more in the mood/get me more excited about the trip, and 2) give me something fun to listen to while over there, eating chocolate and drinking wine at a lake. The first half of the album is exactly what I expected. The first six songs follow this style, and do it in a great way. Then at song seven the album takes an unexpected turn into mostly electronic music, with a lot more vocals. I didn't dislike the electronic side of things, it just came out of nowhere after the first six tracks of really non-american sounds. This left me confused, and I don't think I liked it initially.

My confusion was cured when I came home, searched for the albums and found out that it is actually a double EP. The first half being music written by Beirut and recorded in Mexico with The Jimenez Band. The second EP highlights frontman Zach Condon's electronic side project Realpeople. This makes much more sense now. I must say that while I like the electronically stuff, I definitely prefer the first EP of Mexican brass band music. Like JeSkA said, it is a different and refreshing approach, while the electronic thing is like a lot of other things I'd heard before. If I bought another of their album's (which is likely) I would try the first album Gulag Orkestar, which can be sampled HERE.

Below are two videos from the double EP. The first clip from the first, March of the Zapotec, the second from Realpeople's Holland. You decide for yourself which you prefer: