Live Review: Dirty Beaches & Half High

Half High played to a primarily empty venue, their discombobulated electronic tinkerings well suited to a darkened room of seated people. Elements of their performance proved intriguing, namely the seemingly telepathic relationship between the two band members, exchanging thoughts through the twiddling of knobs and output of screeches. The mundanity was quick to set in when little changed ten minutes into the set, and continued to follow a formula of creating noise with no melody, no troughs or peaks. As the projected visuals began to repeat themselves, they lulled us into a muted despondence. There is certainly potential in Half High, but it wasn't expressed on that night.

Meanwhile Dirty Beaches aka Alex Zhang Hungtai seems to be undergoing a transformation, from '50s reverb rollicking to minimalist electronic wailings a la John Maus. No longer rocking a greased-up hairdo, he ditched the rockabilly aesthetic of records past and, besides the opening of Speedway King, all but ignored his most successful record to date – 2011's Badlands – in favour of new songs, more akin to the sped-up tunes off split EP, Double Feature. Striking a curious balance between electronic drumming, delivered by a band member with all the enthusiasm of Kraftwerk robots, and aggressive scratchy vocals delivered in blistering shouts, Hungtai seemed to be stating very clearly that we should forget all we had known of his previous work. He thrashed about on stage, often turning his back to the audience to pump a fist at the wall, microphone gripped tightly in hand. The songs were all delivered with brutal efficiency; as loud as possible, long ambient introductions with pulsing percussions segueing into Hungtai's indecipherable yells. The crowd bounced along when melody presented itself but it didn't come easy, the challenge seemingly for us to respect the evolution of Dirty Beaches as they dive headfirst into the experimental, leaving the leather and lyrics behind.