One of 2006's most unexpected indie success stories, Beirut combines a wide variety of styles, from pre-rock pop music and Eastern European gypsy styles to the alternately plaintive and whimsical indie folk of the Decemberists and the lo-fi, homemade psychedelic experimentation of Neutral Milk Hotel. That the central figure in all of this is a teenager from Albuquerque, NM, makes Beirut's debut album, Gulag Orkestar, all the more surprising.
Something of a musical prodigy, singer and multi-instrumentalist Zach Condon was making one-man D.I.Y. bedroom recordings by his early teens; in interviews, he claims to have recorded an entire album of 1950s-style doo wop material and a collection of electronic pop songs inspired by the Magnetic Fields.