March of the Zapotec and Realpeople Holland

Beirut | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 17, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Pompeii Records
• ASIN: B001PJRBHU
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,650 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

2009 two CD EP set from Zach Condon AKA Beirut. For the past year, Beirut has alternated between touring in support of 2007's much-lauded The Flying Club Cup and writing a wealth of new material. With no sense of a release in mind, Condon recorded in any style that struck his fancy. Some early discussions about recording material for a film being shot in Mexico morphed into a new idea: What about finding a local band in a small city in Mexico, hiring them to play some new material, and recording the result? Disc One is the result of those sessions (six tracks) while Disc Two features five solo recordings from his home studio. Pomper Records.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A mixed bag. It is a grower., February 17, 2009

By 

southgate (New York, N.Y.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: March of the Zapotec and Realpeople Holland (Audio CD)

First of all, it is not an album but two EPs joined together.
Maybe it is not exactly what you might have come to expect from this enviably talented young American artist.
The first half features a Mexican funeral band and delivers oompah-ish brass and a strong dose of mariachi horns (featuring real Mexicans!).
"It's a charmingly woozy picturesque postcard Mexico: full of inconsolably grieving mothers, carnivalesque town squares, bitter wives and death by bayonet"... like Jason Schwartzman in the "Darjeeling Limited", traveling across India, but seemingly locked within the world of "Where Do You To My Lovely?", the fixed-point at the heart of it all remains Condon's richly romantic, melancholy croon". - Uncut
The second EP, "Holland", recorded by Condon under the moniker Realpeople (an early pre-Beirut alias) was recorded at home but seems like a great, reveals his more sombre Seventies synth side, featuring entirely unrelated, gently synthesized beats and keyboards and is significantly more successful.
Two of the tracks from Holland have surfaced prior to this release - "My Night With The Prostitute From Marseille" appeared on a digitally released charity affair while "Venice" featured on a compilation given away by uber-hip US monthly "The Believer".
"Venice" has a ghostly beauty, which makes you wish that Condon had fleshed out this group of songs into a whole album.
And then there is the oddly uninspired, bizarre, inconsequential Euro-pop of "No Dice", upon which this collection unfortunately closes, which disappoints.
This is a little weird, but it certainly shows a different aspect of Zach's musical personality and talent.
It's happy, sad, intriguing and different.
After repeated listenings, it will grow on you.
And you will come to like it.
The Flying Club Cup

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 6 of 10 critics liked March of the Zapotec/Holland, February 19, 2009

By 

Brian J. Levine "www.audiohenge.com" (New Bedford, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: March of the Zapotec and Realpeople Holland (Audio CD)

I've read 10 reviews of this album, 6 critics liked it, 4 didn't. Below is my attempt at aggregating all those reviews.

This album is actually a double EP. The other EP is Realpeople's (Zach Condon's pre-Beirut name) Holland.

Zach Condon (leader of Beirut) is starting to come across as a musical tourist. He goes someplace new, soaks in some music, becomes inspired and then writes his own music. March of the Zapotec was born from Condon's trip to Oaxaca Mexico where he heard some Mexican funeral music and ended up recording six songs with a local 19-piece band.

Holland on the other hand is some lo-fi electronica that drew comparisons to the Magnetic Fields and Boards of Canada.

The element that holds these two EPs together is Condon's voice. It's amazing. And strangely almost always described as a "croon", but whatever. Ultimately, it's solid work from an amazingly talented singer/musician. It could use a little more focus on writing songs instead of creating atmosphere. Also the critics who didn't like the EPs thought that it was uneven. And I get the feeling critics will really start ripping him if he doesn't settle on a style sooner or later.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very cool to see his broad range of ability, March 7, 2009

By 

Sean Judge (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: March of the Zapotec and Realpeople Holland (Audio CD)

Reading blogs and reviews that tear Zach Condon apart for his foray into electronic music on the second half of this EP makes me wonder why people are so desperate to hear the same sound from their artists. I'm more than impressed that someone with such an old-world style and sensibility can turn around and produce electro-pop that is just as joyful or melancholic as his full band productions are. I can't wait for more from this very talented young artist.