Not sure how this one slipped past us—a few weeks back, Alex Zhang-Hungtai, the travelling iconoclast behind deconstructed rockabilly act Dirty Beaches, released a new video for “White Sand.” The song is a muted, rhythmic thrust, topped with chiming piano notes and Hungtai’s baritone croon. The video is shot on film and directed by Tsien Tsien Zhang, but the real treat is cinematographer Chrisopher Doyle, a cameraman who’s worked with Zhang Yimou, Zhang Yuan, and Wong Kar-wai, among others.Dirty Beaches - White Sand from Tsien-Tsien Zhang on Vimeo.Hungtai is a massive Wong Kar-wai fan, and you can hear traces of that charged romanticism all over his music. In an age where blurry and uninspired bedroom projects give way to blurry and uninspired bedroom videos, it’s refreshing to see Doyle work his magic on Dirty Beaches’ shadowy songs.Doyle has shot his fair share of videos, and all of them share the same sort of soft-focus unreality that’s on display in “White Sand.” Here’s a little recap of some of his best work.Sigur Rós—“Gobbledigook”DJ Shadow—“Six Days"”Texas—“Getaway”
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