Beirut’s Mar of the Zapotec, paired on a single disc with a five-song EP from bandleader Zach Condon’s home recording project Realpeople, faced the challenge of living up to its incredible back story and concept. After talking about possibly scoring a film being shot in Mexico, Condon conceived of the idea to record his recently penned material with a local Mexican band. The unilingual musical mastermind traveled to the small town of Teotitlan del Valle with a hired translator to record with the nineteen-piece Jimenez Band. What resulted is an uncompromised slice of Mexican soul: mariachi horns, clattering percussion, Spanish guitars, and an unmistakably Mexican croon dominate the landscape of Mar of the Zapotec. The Maring tango of ‘The Akara’ sounds especially authentic, as Condon appears to have stepped aside and let the musicians take free reign over his composition. Beirut is certainly successful in capturing the sound that they had been pursuing for the project, although Mar of the Zapotec may not have too much replay value. Despite the considerable musical merits of the album, its greatest assets lie in its story and its faithfulness to its source material: it is a curiosity that Beirut fans will appreciate but not necessarily consider among their favorites.
Realpeople’s Holland makes a complete 180 from the traditional Mexican forms featured on Mar of the Zapotec. Holland sounds like there is no way that it wasn’t recorded on a laptop in someone’s bedroom. The simple, keyboard-driven songs are driven by Condon’s soaring voice and penchant for gorgeous melodies. It’s an immediately enjoyable, intimate set of songs that is especially refreshing after listening to the slow burning Mar. ‘My Night with a Prostitute from Marseille’ is much sweeter than its title would have you believe, melding major key synth melodies and danceable beats to accommodate a rather romantic sounding Condon. The two mini-albums are both successes in vastly different ways, but they are especially effective as testaments to the versatility and adventurousness of Zach Condon.
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