Considered to be an Indie darling since the moment he released his 2006 Balkan influenced album Gulag Orkestar, Zach Condon a.k.a. Beirut has gone on to release one other full length album; the 2007 Jacques Brel, French-chanteuse influenced The Flying Cub Cup. This year's March of the Zapotec and Realpeople Holland isn't so much a follow-up to The Flying Cub Cup as it is two EP's slapped together so as to be able to charge full price for a release. The first disc, March of the Zapotec, is Condon's six song work with The Jimenez Band; an authentic 19 piece Mexican funeral march group that Condon worked with in the Mexican region of Oaxaca. The idea is totally interesting, but unfortunately when listening to it, Zapotec seems half baked. Vocally, Condon is spot on here, but it's almost as if The Jimenez Band are lost in translation in what Condon wants out of them.

The second disc, Realpeople Holland, is actually the first recordings that Condon ever did as his first moniker Realpeople and this is the EP that was titled Holland. Inspired by Indie-Synth groups like The Magnetic Fields and Boards of Canada, this second disc couldn't be any more different that Zapotec. Again, the idea is more interesting than the finished product. Granted, Condon was very young and inexperienced when he recorded Holland, but this EP is proof that sometimes you shouldn't put everything out there that you've ever put on tape. If you've ever been raved to about Beirut but haven't checked Condon's work out yet, please don't start here because this release is for die-hard fans only that need sating until the next full-fledged release. If you want excellent, look to Beirut's other two albums because both are far better than this.