Dirty Beaches’ exceptional 2011 Badlands LP was one of most impressive lo-fi records of recent times, a Lynchian jumble of surfer melodies, doo-wop and Cramps-style raving.

Since then, one-man band Alex Zhang Hungtai has tossed out the sombre ‘Dune Walker’ 7″ on Slow Boy Records and the weirdo ‘Talabasi’ single – but it appears that there’s still plenty more to look forward to in 2012. In an interview with Exclaim, Hungtai intimated that plans are afoot to release two discrete Dirty Beaches albums before the end of the year. The albums will be released simultaneously, but will be issued separately rather than bundled into a single LP package.

Hungtai is also working on the soundtracks for two documentary shorts, including Evan Prosofsky’s sort-of-factual piece Waterpark. He’s also been commissioned to write the OST for an Italian horror film, something he’s clearly excited about: “Unfortunately I can’t pronounce the title, but I met the director in Rome when I was on tour in Europe. He’s a big fan of Dirty Beaches…He showed me the rough cut and I was really interested. I’d been a big fan of Goblin, who was this Italian prog band that did soundtracks for Dario Argento. So this is like a fantasy job for me, to score an Italian horror film.” Given Badlands‘ ghoulish streak, it sounds like a neat fit.

A series of collaborative projects, described by Hungtai as “a bunch of split seven-inches with friends and stuff”, are also en route. Clan Destine Records is set to release a four-way split featuring U.S. Girls, Slim Twig and Ela Orleans (the latter of whom he shared disc-space with on 2011’s split Double Feature LP).