Like sands through the hourglass… these are the days like the days merely a few years ago, in which Alex Zhang Hungtai’s Dirty Beaches project was still churning out singles and short full-length albums hazily exploring the effects of time on everything close to us, while the rest of us were milling about blissfully neglectful of our own inevitable decay. The decay is typically a gradual one, however, so as was foreshadowed in a series of tweets following Dirty Beach’s post-Stateless breakup, Hungtai is continuing to indulge “NEW PROJECTS” and “NEW MUSIC” from his present (though who knows for how long) Los Angeles hangout.
Hungtai explores the temporal implications of unsent postcards on his new release Knave of Hearts, out under his own name and via his Bandcamp right here. The album itself is a collection of recordings done internationally between 2012 and 2015, and musically speaking, don’t expect much in the way of a Presley and Suicide unintentional homage. Like some of the music released under his Last Lizard moniker, this one’s entirely instrumental and contains electric piano as the principal instrument.
It’s all very purdy and introspective, as you can tell by the music below.
Knave of Hearts tracklisting:
01. Entrance (^) Departure
02. Crimée I
03. Crimée II
04. Crimée III
05. Paris Means Nothing To Me Without You
06. Oranges In Bed
07. Nina
More about: Alex Zhang Hungtai, Dirty Beaches
