FADER 60: Beirut Cover Story
- story Matthew Schnipper
- photo Lauren Fleishman
Zach Condon grew up with a map on his bedroom wall and when he needed a name for Beirut, he picked it from there. He’s since expanded his empire of city music through much of Europe, pretty much anywhere that loves an orchestra. But for his most recent release, March of the Zapotec, Condon got on a plane and headed south to the state of Oaxaca in Mexico to record his own version of their big brass band group blast. We spoke to Condon about that experience—and that of recording Zapotec’s other half, the bubbly home-recorded Holland EP—for a cover story in our current issue 60.
FEATURE: Bat For Lashes
- story Kim Taylor Bennett
- photo Leonie Purchas
In her supple, lullaby-like speaking voice, Natasha Khan slowly reels me in. She’s describing the story of “Glass,” the ambitious opener to Two Suns, her second album as Bat For Lashes. In the song, amidst hand drums, crashing cymbals, field recordings from a Brooklyn subway stop on the JMZ line and the sound your finger makes when you rub the rim of a half-filled glass, Khan’s vocals charge like an unbridled unicorn. She invites the listener to float into the middle distance and picture a castle made of crystal where watchmen in the towers point to a glass knight whose heart burns bright as the sun.
