Dirty Beaches “Neon Gods and Funeral Strippers” & “Elizabeth”

Dirty Beaches don’t fall too far from the “whacked out kraut-synth” model that is most often attributed to Suicide, but in my mind there is little reason to reinvent that wheel, especially when it is a genre as underutilized as this one. Over the last half of 2012, they jumped on a split LP with three other artists, including the great U.S Girls, and decided to use their side of the LP for one long, demented jam. Listen below (and watch the heavy video) for “Neon Gods and Funeral Strippers.” The song is a vacuum of noise and glutinous rhythms, a train barreling forward into a continually more dense fog. Another one off release, the single “Elizabeth’s Theme,” finds Alex Zhang Hungtai (aka Dirty Beaches) softening the edges and creating a lush, brittle soundscape that strips away the tenacity and edge that generally are calling cards for the group. Listen to both below and keep and eye out for new material in 2013.

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