Dirty Beaches
Encyclopedia
Alex Zhang Hungtai, known by his stage name Dirty Beaches, is a Taiwan
ese-born Canadian
lo-fi musician based in Vancouver
, British Columbia
.
Dirty Beaches released a number of EPs and instrumental-focused albums on cassette-only labels, before releasing the full-length Badlands in March 2011. Badlands was subsequently named as a longlisted nominee for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize
. Dirty Beaches has also released singles including "True Blue"/"Sweet 17," "Lord Knows Best," and "Lone Runner," as well as videos, many of them directed by Zhang.
Dirty Beaches is "a one man band project," sometimes employing sampling
, inspired by Zhang's longtime love of hip hop. In addition to his own years moving between countries and on the road touring, films are one of Zhang's influences, particularly those by Wong Kar-wai
. Zhang said Wong's movies are "usually about the passage of time, and how in relation it distorts your relationship with everything else in life. The central Dirty Beaches character is a product of those experiences. Of someone traveling long distances in search of something, in exile, misplaced, with no home to return to."
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
ese-born Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
lo-fi musician based in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
.
Dirty Beaches released a number of EPs and instrumental-focused albums on cassette-only labels, before releasing the full-length Badlands in March 2011. Badlands was subsequently named as a longlisted nominee for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize
2011 Polaris Music Prize
The 2011 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on September 19, 2011. The winner was Arcade Fire, for the album The Suburbs.For the 2011 award, the prize was increased to $30,000 for the winning musician.-Shortlist:...
. Dirty Beaches has also released singles including "True Blue"/"Sweet 17," "Lord Knows Best," and "Lone Runner," as well as videos, many of them directed by Zhang.
Dirty Beaches is "a one man band project," sometimes employing sampling
Sampling
Sampling may refer to:*Sampling , converting a continuous signal into a discrete signal*Sampling , converting continuous colors into discrete color components*Sampling , re-using portions of sound recordings in a piece...
, inspired by Zhang's longtime love of hip hop. In addition to his own years moving between countries and on the road touring, films are one of Zhang's influences, particularly those by Wong Kar-wai
Wong Kar-wai
Wong Kar-wai BBS is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylized, emotionally resonant work, including Days of Being Wild , Ashes of Time , Chungking Express , Fallen Angels , Happy Together and 2046...
. Zhang said Wong's movies are "usually about the passage of time, and how in relation it distorts your relationship with everything else in life. The central Dirty Beaches character is a product of those experiences. Of someone traveling long distances in search of something, in exile, misplaced, with no home to return to."