Beirut's March of the Zapotec and Realpeople Holland EP is a prime example of music best conveyed through vinyl. Their Eastern European-influenced brass orchestration sounds like it should be coming from a phonograph playing to each layer's rustic overtone; but more sharply, Zapotec/Holland is made for vinyl because of its stark dichotomy profiling two different cultures of people and music.
Side A, March of the Zapotec, is the classic orchestral Beirut, the title a nod to the influence of the indigenous people of Central America. The second half, Realpeople Holland, is a
new, electronic Beirut, the title acknowledging the influence of European electronic music.
Zapotec is a logical next step after 2007's outstanding The Flying Club Cup. It still sounds like whimsical gypsy music, but now with a hint of salsa, most noticeably on The Akara."" Zapotec came to be after singer/songwriter Zach Condon immersed himself in the funeral bands of Oaxaca, Mexico. The influence is subtle but nonetheless present.
Even though it is an orchestral progression and fits like a glove in Beirut's discography, its successes are more modest than previous work. On ""My Wife,"" he misses the song's relevancy by writing it past its hook, and he doesn't fully develop the hook on ""La Llorona."" ""The Shrew"" is reportedly one of Condon's favorite works, and it is the lone standout song on this EP.
If Zapotec sounds like Beirut in 2009, Realpeople Holland sounds like Beirut in 2090. Condon utilizes the same instrumental elements, but this time turns to computers instead of Flà ¼gelhorns, creating smooth synth-pop.
The exception is ""The Concubine,"" which fails to fit the electronic prototype but sits well with the best of Beirut's catalog. ""No Dice"" is the closest Beirut might ever come to a dance track, featuring an up-tempo (for them) hook over a driving drum machine.
Realpeople Holland is the Beirut anomaly. Whereas Zapotec fit in well despite its relative shortcomings, Holland fits in well despite its sonic differences. It features different instrumentation, but at the heart of the matter Condon is still writing the same songs. If guitars ever become outdated, this isn't too far from what alt-folk will probably sound like.
Calling Zapotec/Holland a disappointment would be selfish. Condon has continually raised the bar for himself and his contemporaries, and even though Zapotec/Holland fails to raise the bar higher, it does at least fall within the standard error of Beirut's lofty expectations. Zapotec might not be the opus its predecessors were, but Realpeople Holland opens a new, exciting door for Beirut. The electronic instrumentation fails to yield the same effect as Beirut's normal grandiose orchestration, but experimentation, especially that which is honed to this level of precision, is a promising sign that 23-year-old Condon is just getting started.
