Altered Zones

[photo by Aja Emma]

by Richard MacFarlane

MP3: Dirty Beaches: "Lord Knows Best"

MP3: Dirty Beaches: "Sweet 17"

Lately, Dirty Beaches' Alex Zhang Hungtai seems to be capturing more hearts than usual with his deeply personalized homage to 20th century Americana. He's been honing his rockabilly and blues-inspired lo-fi for around five years now, but it wasn't until Badlands, his most recent album, that his "stylized noir" really solidified. Zhang Hungtai is Taiwanese by birth, but has lived in Honolulu, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. His ballads offer a seductive blend of musical and cinematic tropes, tapping a Lynchian sense of romance on tracks like "Lord Knows Best" and the heart and soul of Mississipi Records' depression-era blues compilations. In addition to '50s rockabilly and '60s garage, open road rockers like "Speedway King" and "A Hundred Highways" may recall anything from the minimalist proto-punk of Suicide to the blown-out guitar-psych of Japanese outsider legends Les Rallizes Dénudés (sampled on "A Hundred Highways"). Cemented by his white T-shirt/slicked pompadour aesthetic and noteworthy personal backstory (his father belonged to a Taiwanese motorcycle gang before the Cultural Revolution, in addition to a doo-wop cover band), Dirty Beaches' brand of cool is as unmistakable as it is hard to describe. We talked to Zhang Hungtai about his obsessions, Internet press, his recording proccesses, and Hawaii.

AZ: You have described yourself as a "mish-mash" of classic artists like Jerry Lee Lewis or Elvis or Link Wray. When you write a new song, do you set out with a specific person or image or feeling in mind?

Alex: There are usually two modes I use when working on new material: a) I get an image and an overall feeling of a scene or character, and start fresh from there, or b) I pick up new budget equipment like a drum machine or a keyboard from Craigslist, and use it to explore new sonic territories.

AZ: Is it weird that people seem to be calling Badlands your debut, since you've been putting out releases since 2005?

Alex: I don't mind it when I see it, because it simply reflects the quality of music journalism that certain blogs/websites represent. Those are the people who will forget about me the minute they find something new to blog about, which I'm more than happy to distance myself from. It also makes me appreciate quality old school music journalists who actually do their research before they interview me. And I'm always happy to talk with them about music.

Alex Zhang Hungtai of Dirty Beaches says:
I first came across the Beijing scene in 2009 when I released my first Night People tape. The Canadian Frank brothers (Hot & Cold) got in touch with me about playing shows in China, and that if I ever wanted to play a show at D-22, I would be welcome. So when I visited my parents in 2009 (who relocated to Shanghai 6 years ago from Taiwan) I decided to send them a message, and hopped on a overnight train heading northbound. Eventually I met Vince Li over the internet. He runs a fantastic tape label in Beijing with his cohorts, Rose Mansion Analog, and is 1/3 of the band that's of topic here today: The Offset: Spectacles.

The band crush didn't come until I visited Beijing once again during this past Chinese New Year, and I got to see The Offset: Spectacles play live. Joshua Frank (of Hot & Cold) dubbed them "Noir Garage," and it's quite an apt description. Featuring Vince, Kei, and Ou Jian on guitars and bass, the band achieves what Vince described to me as "phantom rhythm," where the guitars and bass work in unison to replicate the high and low-end sounds of percussion. Their combination of dark, morose, wry humor and modern Chinese social commentary requires no obvious footings of a drum beat. Instead, their music feels like the heartbeat of what's happening in the underground scene of Beijing.

Beijing is currently on the cusp of becoming an arts and music mecca for likeminded people all over China, attracting young artists to relocate and participate in a thriving and supportive scene (figuratively speaking, compared to the rest of China). This is history in the making right now for them. Rock 'n' roll and DIY culture have yet to make their mark on China in any significant way; only a minute percentage of the population is aware of this subculture phenomenon.

"Sweet 17", the b-side from Dirty Beaches' new True Blue 7", pays mind to a simpler time when a brief glipse of gyrating hips on TV was enough to set people off (in a good way, or a bad way). The man behind Dirty Beaches, Alex Zhang Hungtai, carefully crafts his songs and it shows-- they serve as a perfect tribute to primitive early recordings from Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley's Million Dollar Quartet, among other surf-rock and rockabilly tender-hearts. Hungtai also clearly harbors loads of respect for the Great Rock Music Lineage, as exemplified by his idiosyncratic vocals (akin to those of the Cramps' Lux Interior) and the way each song is compressed into a vintage-sounding form that aids in adding a tinge of density. (via Weekly Tape Deck)