After falling in love with Gogol Bordello, I was pleased to see an article written about other interesting groups that are pressing traditional Eastern European music into modern molds.
This song, Gulag Orkestrar (right click, save as), sounds exactly like Chef describes it: Balkan orchestra meets Radiohead meets Sigur Ros. Although Beirut sounds as though it is a massive project with members upward of ten people, it is actually composed of one teenage boy — with occasional assistance from two others — who came home from a long European vacation intent on making an album that reflected the culture he’d just experienced.
Pleasant surprise finding this one. Let me know what you think in the comments.
Is DeVotchka too obvious a suggestion?
One teenage boy?
Well, damn, now I feel all sorts of inadequate.
But impressed. I enjoyed that, thanks.
Nothing like hearing about the “band” behind this album that makes one feel like a loser.
It’s an interesting listen, but the intro almost made me turn it off. It was about twice as long as it should’ve been. Once it got into the cong proper, I was able to listen… Balkan Sigur Rós, that’s pretty good.
I’m with foresmac; interesting, but too long on the intro.