Welcome to the latest installment of an ongoing mixtape series in which I highlight some of my favorite voices online and beyond. This week we catch up with Vancouver’s Dirty Beaches, the nom de tune of ghostly crooner Alex Zhung Hai. As mentioned last month, Zhung Hai crafts surreal washes of mood and sound—an aesthetic not unlike that of an Angelo Badalamenti score. Transmitting from China, Zhung Hai crafted the following mix touching down on the beaches of Hawaii, the plains of Niger and beyond.
Stay tuned for details per Dirty Beaches upcoming guest slot on my SIRIUS/XMU show. Download, mix details and song provenance, after the jump…
Download: Dirty Beaches: Trans Pacific Radio Mixtape (zipped folder, 81 mb)
01 Kuu Ipo I Ka Hee Pue One – Benny Kalama & the Hawaiian Village Serenaders – Echoes of Hawaii
02 Tèmèlès – Alemayehu Eshete & Hirut Beqel – Ethiopiques 3 – Golden Years Of Modern Ethiopian Music
03 Tezeta (Nostalgia) – Mulatu Astatke – Ethiopiques 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale, 1969-1974
04 Come Closer – Salma Agha – Favorite Bollywood Songs (2004)
05 Kuni Majagani – Group Inerane – Guitars From Agadez (Music Of Niger)
06 Unknown – Thai Orchestra – 70s Thai Orchestra
07 Oh, Mother I Can’t Stand It – Spahanis – Mortika: Recordings from a Greek Underworld
08 Blondie In Khmer Camouflage – Unknown Artist – Sublime Frequencies – Radio Phenom Penh
09 Radio Jakarta #2 – Unknown Artist – Sublime Frequencies – Radio Java(2003)
10 Radio Tangier Internationale – Unknown Artist – Sublime Frequencies – Radio Morocco (2003)
11 Madame Foyer- Unknown Artist – Radio Palestine: Sounds Of The Eastern Mediterranean 2004)
12 Unknown -Thai Orchestra- 70s Thai Orchestra (Mississippi Records 2007)
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This wonderful mix sounds like it was compiled at Montreal’s amazing Grande Bibliothèque de BAnQAddress… great stuff Mr. Dirty Beaches.
1 | E.Swan February 10th, 2011 at 10:43 amthis is huge, thanks
2 | Trent February 10th, 2011 at 2:54 pmSecond time through. Great flow.
3 | Brion February 10th, 2011 at 7:22 pmCheers DB for the tunes!
4 | Dash February 10th, 2011 at 9:24 pmDamn good!
5 | Luke February 10th, 2011 at 11:31 pmOops! Requires a password to extract files from zipped folder…any suggestion? Many thanks and regards!
6 | Vassilis February 11th, 2011 at 4:01 amCan’t download. Please help!
7 | Toni February 11th, 2011 at 12:29 pmOn the money.
8 | Jason B. February 11th, 2011 at 3:30 pmalt download link: http://soundcloud.com/zoo-music/sets/dirty-beaches-2011-world-music-compilation/
9 | anon February 11th, 2011 at 3:35 pmmediafire worked for me
10 | raymond February 11th, 2011 at 3:45 pmThanks… I love this…the 4 radio excerpts especially. #06, however, the Unknown – Thai Orchestra piece, sounds more Tuareg than 70′s Thai. Is this labeled correctly?
11 | richcolp February 11th, 2011 at 5:58 pmthis is fantastic; wish there was a film behind the score
12 | ezra February 17th, 2011 at 6:11 pmthis guy sucks,saw him at the casbah with the dum dum girls..
13 | n00ber March 10th, 2011 at 2:02 amWe played one of those songs in our radio show. This breathtakingly beautiful. Thanks a lot.
14 | ben June 2nd, 2011 at 9:58 amI kind of liked, but never really “got” this tape until tonight, at the tail end of a late dinner I did for two friends here in the heart of the most unpacific city of Warsaw, Poland. An unexpected gift. Many thanks !
15 | AnDe October 1st, 2011 at 3:54 pmI yum you!
16 | fari December 12th, 2011 at 3:34 pm[...] Hause und pfeife leise “Crying” von Roy Orbison. An dieser Stelle sei auch das tolle Mixtape von Alex Zhang Hungtai auf Aquarium Drunkard [...]
17 | Dirty Beaches Live - Hamburg, Indra 26.02.2012 | Jahrgangsgeräusche February 27th, 2012 at 12:42 am