It doesn’t really matter what genre of music you try to lump Dirty Beaches in to. You can call them lo-fi, or garage or tape deck electronica or whatever, at the core of each and every track I at least have heard, there’s a truly tropical feel. Not the sort of ukulele and coconut steel drums you expect from the notion of tropical, more so the low-energy vibe of a day spent between beach and storm. The feeling of water brushing against your feet, and the distant hum of smoke-puttering cars and island culture.
Even on the newest tracks from Dirty Beaches (out on Zoo Music, well now), ones which hope to pay homage to the sort of slow-dancing music children of the 50s boogie-woogied to, there it is, that lo-fi hum of tropicalia. You picture the Dance Under The Sea, rife with poodle skirts and pomaded hair, but transported to a cane field in the Caribbean. Shiny black shoes click against island rocks, perhaps a low-hanging palm brushes against your dates dress. Somebody spikes the coconut water.

浪花在一個既如畫又骯髒的海岸上飛濺；一輛古董雪佛蘭的引擎靜靜地以慢動作風馳電掣地飄過你的耳邊。稀薄，但又集中、不斷地向前推進：Dirty Beaches是為汽車旅程而設的音樂；它能陪伴你疲憊的摩托車在霓虹公路上奔馳，一路走進迷糊的隧道裡。
Dirty Beaches是張洪泰的化身──他是一單人樂隊、聲音工匠、一位跨太平洋的遊民。出生在台灣的他曾經居住過檀香山、多倫多、蒙特利爾，還有溫哥華。
跟大衛林奇派音樂家Angelo Badalamenti或簡約合成器破壞份子Suicide一樣，Dirty Beaches的音樂不只是一種單純的簡化，而是一種精華的提煉。循環鼓聲和翩翩的情歌哼調讓人著迷，而彌漫在音樂裡的那些懷著盼望的旋律背後，也隱藏著某種神秘的、同時又浪漫又冰冷的幽默感覺。

Dirty Beaches is Alex Zhang Hungtai who has been living in Montreal for the last few years but has spent time in California, Hawaii and China and has plans to move to Vancouver soon. The aspect of distance, moving, upheaval seems significant to Dirty Beaches sound and aesthetic, drifting, weaving, pulsing... somber droney garage pop tunes, that seem to float off in some distant geography. Sonically there in your head but out of touch. the sound has a disconnected but beautiful feeling, a series of mental refractions going on, like looking into the infinity mirror at a packed night club from some old technicolor movie while good looking people from some other uknown lands dance around you. Strange stuff that feels right in its strangeness.