Beirut

Gulag Orkestar (2006)

a music of slowness, a music of doom, maybe.

I'm particularly intrigued by the song's use of

(a) drums, and

(b) voice

The drum-beat, if it were to be isolated from the rest of the soundtrack, would - I believe - appear quite unspectacular. With the rest of Condon's raw orchestra, though, it acquires this surreal chomping dimension, as if the progression of the song were somehow dependent on the pulverising of stones and leaves.

The use of voice is similarly odd. The first time we hear Condon is at 1:54. He begins with something inchoate, as if we were hearing him through a veil of water. This culminates in a riff that appears to be in English ;)

Zach Condon was twenty years old when his first album, Gulag Orkestar, was released in 2006. I know this because I read a NYT review on an early gig. He's scrawny and looks like the kind of guy who must have difficulty growing facial hair.

*click on "Gulag Orkestar" below the header for a link to a video.