Beirut, Brixton Academy

When Zach Condon burst onto the indie scene as Beirut in 2006, he brought with him the sort of Balkan-inflected melancholy that few outsiders before had truly mastered. Written on his return to New Mexico after a journey around Europe, Gulag Orkestar was an exquisite collection of yearning ballads, carried by alternatively dramatic and romantic klezmer.
Subsequent albums have seen him ride west: 2007’s The Flying Club Cup, still perhaps his finest hour conjured up the French belle époque. The EP March of the Zapotec surrounded his songs with Mexican mariachi horns. And on 2011’s streamlined The Rip Tide, Condon came to embrace the United States, even singing of his hometown on ‘Santa Fe’.
Just as Condon’s career was surging, trouble stuck: he was hospitalized for exhaustion and faced a divorce from his then-wife. No No No, his fourth album proper, deals with the aftermath. If the already unveiled title track is any indication, it will see Condon’s work become smoother and more direct, with a greater rhythmic pulse than ever before. This September, in London, Beirut's tour will bring their new record to the 02 Academy Brixton, one of their largest UK venues so far. For fans of lushly orchestrated baroque pop, it will be a must-see.