When Alex Zhang Hungtai released BADLANDS this year it was built on the extension of the few E.P's released before and the much spoken about live show that consists of the Taiwanese/canadian musician alone on stage, one hand clinging onto the mic or his white strat as he half mumbles half yelps his lyrics over reverbed rockabilly guitars and the occasional samples that make up his backing band.
The record that Hungtai is currently touring off the back of condenses that live show to c.d (or vinyl or mp3 for you cool kids). badlands sound is a mixture of a vocally confessional incoherence and the heavy reverb of Hungtai's glassy guitars..the whole record sounds like it was recorded in one room whilst Hungtai recorded the lyrics in the bathroom down the hall with a cheap microphone, tired and sweating through speed induced paranoia.the overall feel of the album takes the gothic rockabilly of early cramps and plays it over "blue velvet".
Opening track "speedway king" sounds like the soundtrack to a forgotten 1950's roger corman movie that you wake up to at 3am, the mumbled vocals sounding like gene vincent after a bender of booze and pills. As opening tracks go its the equivelent of being hassled by some thugs from a local street gang in a dark alleyway, every guitar note a shove while the hoodlums girl laughs at you for not fighting back.
"Hundred highways" with its reverbed feedback drowning out the dirty sounding garage rock guitars is not recommended for head phones or insomniacs. the song should be used as some kind of legal speed guaranteed to keep you awake on long drives as the shards of echoed guitars stab at your ears.
The inclusion of two "ballads" work well in breaking up the confrontation of the earlier songs,"true blue" is a high school prom dirge crackling through frank booth's car radio on a poorly lit monochrome highway whilst "lord knows best" is a grainy elvis presley on downers ballad with a repeated piano line that loops the whole way through.
The cinematic vibe of the album is striking, filling your head with visual images of b-movies, black and white footage of american freeways and seedy backstreets.The sound incorporates the atmospheric mood of Lynch, Jarmusch and Zhang Hungtai's documented influence Wong Kar-wai, working as a soundtrack to each directors films, you could watch Lynch's "blue velvet", Jarmusch's "permanant vacation" or Kar-wei's "chungking express" with no sound whatsoever, just the album on a steady, repetitive loop. Lasting just over 26 minutes and at eight songs its hardly sprawling but its short enough to warrant repeated listens, the curiosity of finding something new in Hungtai's low, indecipherable lyrics more than enough incentive to keep coming back as well as the quality of the music on offer...
Badlands should rightly have a place in many end of year lists of people, my self included who want to hear more musical noir from this sonic drifter.
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