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CMU Approved
Approved: Dirty Beaches
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 23 June 2011
It always seems odd that someone who works in a largely visual medium could encompass a certain type of sound in music, but sometimes Lynchian is the only way to describe something.
And right now, as I listen to Dirty Beaches, aka Taiwan-born and Canada-based musician Alex Zhang Hungtai, my head is filled with David Lynch-esque scenes. It’s dirty, grimey, reverb drenched rock n roll that circles around itself, tying itself in knots and unravelling to reveal yet more darkness. The more you listen, the more it sucks you in and tries to swallow you.
Having appeared on the Polaris Award longlist last week, Dirty Beaches’ debut album, ‘Badlands’, has been released on a short run of vinyl, announcing itself with a degraded black and white video for opening track ‘Speedway’ (which we should probably warn you is a bit NSFW). As well as that, Hungtai will be playing UK dates twice next month as part of a wider European tour, with a show at Great Bridgewater Street in Manchester on 16 Jul, and one at The Victoria in Dalston on 19 Jul.
