Those are carbon-based pads, and it's possible that the controller needs the resistance of the pads to keep from shorting out (I've seen that in other devices). You can gently scrape the solder-mask off of the copper traces and solder straight to those.
Or you could mix up some brush-on electrical tape mixed with graphite powder and use it to glue the wires to the carbon pads, but it's really freaking messy.