Required Records - Gulag Orkestar by Beirut

I kinda got lazy and stopped writing the Required Records blog (http://drphunkrecords.blogspot.com/ ) about a year ago. I never really wrote on that page much anyway which is sad because I love CDs and I love writing about music. I've decided instead to just do all my writing on this page for ease.

Gulag Orkestar (combined on CD with the Lon Gisland ep) is a great record. I picked it up randomly about a year ago from Avalanche Records in Glasgow. I liked the cover, a faded photograph of two women and a car. The photos were apparently found in the back of a library book. I might have read something about the band on the internet before then but I'm not sure.

The music is very folky, unlike most of the indie and alternative stuff that I listen to. Many of the songs have little or no guitar on them and much of the instrumentation is entirely acoustic. Zach Condon (the main Beirut guy) has clearly been very influenced by Eastern European music and makes use of time signatures that are unfamiliar to Western ears. He is backed by some good musicians including Jeremy Barnes (of Neutral Milk Hotel and Hawk and a Hacksaw fame).

A lot of people seem to have an immediate response to this CD because it sounds very different to much of what you hear on the radio or TV. It has a more natural sounding production. The stand-out track is probably Elephant Gun from the Lon Gisland EP although it's all good.

I recommend this record to anyone with jaded ears.

Try http://www.beirutband.com/ for more