Yesterday Alex Zhang Hungtai neé Dirty Beaches sat in front of the bandcamp for a good chunk of time making available dozens of tracks that previously would have required a bit of well-intentioned mediafiring and/or real-live crate digging at your local, slightly off music store, if you have one of those in your area. Not important! Now with a simple click, you can hear the ominously dystopian title track on Night City (released October 2010), or catch him throwing in some uncharacteristically unadulterated drum machine sequencing in the reprise of the track, “Night City Theme”. Or some proof that Hungtai has been developing his signature croon all along with “Golden Desert Sun” (June 2010).
The dark horse in this digital stable is the messy, blown out Chess Music EP, recorded way back in 2007 on what sounds like a computer microphone or a quiet tape recorder. You could either call it an early noise release, or a small fragmentary birth of what we hear today when we go to a Dirty Beaches show. For those whose interests include this kind of otherworldly hiss, it comes recommended:
You can also buy the other albums/EPs for $2-10, and tracks for $1 a pop.
