Album Details
Special two CD reissue on the 4AD label of this critically-adored release featuring a bonus disc with five tracks: 'Elephant Gun', 'My Family's Role In The World Revolution', 'Scenic World' (Version), 'Long Island Sound' and 'Carousels'. Beiruts debut album Gulag Orkestar swirls and swayswith a procession of horns, violins, cellos, ukuleles, mandolins,glockenspiels, drums, tambourines, congas, organs, pianos, clarinetsand accordions, a wonderfully brash, drunken sound which whirlsaround Zachs histrionic and bewitchingly plaintive vocals. From thelush trumpet, rhythmically plucked ukulele and somersaulting,emotive croon of Postcards From Italy, through to the bustlingghetto sound of Bratislava. Gulag Orkestar is abrave and passionate global mange full of energy, beauty andmystery. 'Beautiful and disarming'-Pitchfork, 'Precocious, other-worldly and vividly ambitious'-Drowned In Sound, 'This is serious music for serious listeners'-Billboard. 4AD. 2006.
Album Description
While it may sound like an entire Balkan gypsy orchestra playing modern songs as mournful ballads and upbeat marches, Beirut's 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 Condon's 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.
