My first impression of Vancouver’s Alex Zhung Hai, who records under the name Dirty Beaches, was that of a cross between Richard Hawley and Leonard Cohen if, say, collaborating with Angelo Badalamenti. An impression that still stands. Zung Hai’s upcoming LP, Badlands, is a surreal meld of 50s crooner cool coupled with blurry washes of mood and sound. The below track, “Lord Knows Best,” samples and re-imagines Françoise Hardy’s “Voila” as a narcoleptic fever dream.
MP3: Dirty Beaches :: Lord Knows Best
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been listening to this track a lot lately. how does the rest of the album hold up?
1 | k January 30th, 2011 at 6:18 pm@K – it’s good and maintains an even keel. ”true blue” might be my favorite cut. he is playing our sxsw party in march. interested to see the live translation.
2 | Satisfied '75 January 30th, 2011 at 7:38 pmthe answer is, he is spellbinding live.
3 | anon January 30th, 2011 at 8:16 pmOf what I’ve heard so far, this man’s music is really great. Looking forward to the LP.
4 | E.Swan January 31st, 2011 at 10:39 amLove this dude – so good!
5 | Mark January 31st, 2011 at 12:13 pmdefinitely d.lynch/a.badalamenti—there’s a lot of suicide-alan vega as well
6 | -- January 31st, 2011 at 10:22 pmnice shit
I want to hear a full-length. This track is great.
7 | Scott M. February 2nd, 2011 at 1:14 pmi fucking love this record. I discovered Dirty Beaches about a week ago through an obscure surf film and fell in love.
To everyone, check out “True Blue.” It’s stunning.
8 | FeelLikeAStranger February 2nd, 2011 at 8:23 pmthank you for turning me on to this! i’m only on the first song of the album, “speedway king,” and i’m loving it. reminds me a lot of early suicide. good stuff.
9 | ian February 5th, 2011 at 8:26 am