Beirut's first album: rare, unreleased, untitled.

according to last.fm,

Condon has recorded before: when he was fifteen and under the name of Realpeople, he made an electronic record, fashioned after his love for The Magnetic Fields. Condon was a straight-A student until he dropped out at the age of 16 to travel Europe in a drunken haze, cavorting and partying with the locals wherever he ended up.

Realpeople/Beirut's very first album is called The Joys of Losing Weight

here's a description from the site I downloaded the album from:

"This album has never been released, is not available for sale, and has never been seen or heard by anyone other than a handful of people who have personally received a copy of this record. It pre-dates all of his work with Beirut and does not bear any influence of the Balkan/Eastern Gypsy sound that he has become reknowned and critically acclaimed for; however, it's a highly precocious album that's steeped in amazing melodies draped against a backdrop of synthesized electronica: imagine an entire electronic/experimental album in the style of Scenic World with Zach's distinctive vocals and the occasional appearance of his famous brass instrumentation."

now, I've gone and made this very easy for you guys, I have an mp3 of a very good piano driven song that you can sample, and a zip file with all 21 songs on it. it took me forever to download it, but it was well worth it. it's gorgeous and unrefined, not in a grungy way but in a oh-he's-definitely-experimenting-and-learning-in-the-process way. it sounds very much like the new EP, Realpeople Holland, and I love it.

warning: if you aren't already a big fan of Condon's work, or if you absolutely hated Realpeople Holland, I would get super well acquainted with Gulag Orkestar before trying to tackle this. and, just for the record, the recently released double EP sounds a LOT better on vinyl. I dunno what it is, something about the compressed mp3 file doesn't do Beirut justice.

Beirut - Untitled 12 [mp3]

Beirut - The Joys of Losing Weight [zip]