(Photo Courtesy of Zoo Music)Alex Zhang Hungtai, the musician behind Dirty Beaches, linked his music to his favorite films by Wong Kar-wai, saying it is "usually about the passage of time, and how in relation it distorts your relationship with everything else in life ... of someone traveling long distances in search of something, in exile, misplaced, with no home to return to." This characterization makes sense as Hungtai himself has lived all over the globe in places such as Taipei, Honolulu, Vancouver and San Francisco.
Hungtai just released a new album, “Stateless,” as Dirty Beaches, but announced that it will be the last. He posted on Twitter that it was “time to move on” and promised new music in 2015. His final album under this moniker features four instrumental tracks, all of which are over the seven-minute mark.
Dirty Beaches’s debut release on Zoo Music Records, “Badlands,” was a mixture of rockabilly and lo-fi pop that invoked influences like Elvis Presley and Dick Dale. His 2013 follow-up, double LP “Drifters / Love is the Devil,” showed a darker, more experimental side of the project. The first side of the album is full of looped beats, over which Hungtai mumbles and groans. The second side gets much weirder and is composed almost entirely of zany, sometimes-melodic, instrumental tunes.
This strangeness is expanded on “Stateless.” The disillusionment and immenseness present in the background of the previous releases are now brought to the forefront in drone-based synth songs.
The album opens with “Displaced,” a seven minute song that begins with a looping synth and includes a daunting viola. The song evokes feelings of loneliness and claustrophobia, leaving the listener to work hard to remember the lighter, pop days of “Badlands.”
Next is the title track, “Stateless.” It starts with a low drone that immediately invoked the opening song of “A Clockwork Orange.” Hungtai plays saxaphone throughout the 11 minute song, but it is placed so far in the background that it almost feels as if another musician’s music is leaking onto the album. This song is more spacious than the first, but still holds a certain eeriness.
“Pacific Ocean” begins the second side of the album, clocking in at seven minutes and 27 seconds, the same as “Displaced.” Compared to the previous two songs, it is lighter and features high-pitched string instruments and a bright loop, providing an easier listening experience.
The 14-minute finale, “Time Washes Away Everything,” is the perfect way for Hungtai to put Dirty Beaches behind him. The title ties back to his concept of the project, while the music slowly washes over listeners with a calm drone, once again featuring a viola.
As the track fades out, we get the sense that Dirty Beaches is no longer lost in some dark space, but in fact has escaped that place completely unscathed.
Tell the reporter about your favorite daunting viola at wruof@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @willruof
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