Dirty Beaches

The project of Alex Zhang Hungtai, Dirty Beaches works a lo-fi aesthetic with an undercurrent of retro-breezy surf pop that's locked in trenches of minimalist industrial grime a la Suicide. A bit of a nomad his entire life, Hungtai was born in Taiwan, and has lived in China, Honolulu, Montreal and Vancouver. That drifter lifestyle informs much of his music, which he began working on in the mid-'00s, first releasing 7-inch singles and, finally, his debut album, Badlands, in 2011. The record is eerie and evocative, painting monochromatic pictures of dark alleys, desolate open roads and seedy underground nightclubs from a past lifetime; think David Lynch mingling with Elvis Presley.