Back To My Beiruts

Music at the moment is 'Gulag Orkestar' by Beirut, aka 20-year-old Zach Condon, a New Mexican based in Brooklyn. The album is heavy on European folk influences, Goran Bregovic and Emir Kusturica being only the most famous musicians that it brings to mind. But there is a clear originality to the record, and is all the more impressive for Condon's age. I bet he wished he hadn't chosen that name now: after the summer bombings of Lebanon it must be hard for the curious to Google him.