Brief moment in Time

Beirut.

2005 was a solid year for music. It was my graduating year of high school and I like that it was such a strong year for independent music. The Shins, The Flaming Lips, Le Tigre, Sleater Kinney’s last years, The Decembrists, Neko Case, Beck, Queens of the Stone Age, Nada Surf, Rogue Wave, The Tragically Hip (sometimes), Band of Horses… Yeah, I’m looking directly at you Sasquatch music festival ’06…

Let’s take a brief moment for nostalgia:













However worn Converse aside--

I’ve realized one album that continuously becomes overlooked and shadowed by hipsters and music critics alike is Beirut’s Gulag Orkestrar. And I admit, usually in my blogs I try and let the music critics and hipsters create posts about music. It is, after all, their one area of confidence and safe haven. They do it better.



Creating arguments for “good” art is a slippery slope, from Kant to Ruskin, to some modernist popular artist commercialized mixed media… art is not something that is tangible, logical and easy to prove. Creating an argument? Sure. Platonic critiques on binary organization on art’s worth to society? Kant’s judgment on the aesthetic? Not so much. And, in fact, this very subjective interpretation is what makes art beautiful.
Beauty is any particular thing to any particular person.

However, with all this, I can say, Gulag Orkestrar is just too great to be lost in the times of dusty record shelves and old mixtapes. The entire album goes beyond just being music. This music is based of a genre that attempts to bring fractured people together.

I was introduced to this album by someone who had a strong attachment to gypsy music and Balkan Brass. Much of the point of this type of music isn’t to be “good”, but rather, to bridge social, economic and cultural gaps.

Case in point:




This is what solidified Gulag Orkestrar as a means of successful artistic expression. Not only does the entire album sustain itself in versatility and musical talent, but so much of Condon’s live performances are about making the audience feel something similar and universal.