Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner has an unexpected new electronic project called HeCTA, with fellow members Scott Martin and Ryan Norris also joining him. Comes September 18th, the trio will release their debut album, ‘The Diet’, via City Slang in Europe and via Merge in North America. HeCTA co-produced the album with Jeremy Ferguson and Morgan Geist and John McEntire (The Sea and Cake, Tortoise) lent a hand on mixing duties.
Kurt explained how HeCTA came to life in their website, mentioning a 78 RPM record he had come across featuring a 45-second monologue about weight loss, performed by the comedian Buddy Hackett, and the book Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture 1970–1979 by Tim Lawrence. “I saw parallels between the dance culture of that era and the indie-rock/punk/experimental music culture. It unlocked in my mind a genre of music long dormant in memory yet an influence so prevailing in a variety of current musical genres. Woe be it unto the man whose tastes are frozen forever, for given time, space, and understanding, such things become reborn and reimagined as we search for a creative kernel of truth.”
Kurt continues to describe the project:
“As HeCTA, we take our approach seriously and are respectfully aware of the great electronic music created throughout its history continuing into the present—so much so that when it came time to mix these recordings, we reached out to some of the central figures of the genre. Such greats as Morgan Geist, John McEntire, and Q all had a hand in shaping the refined sound we present to you. With invaluable creativity and engineering by Jeremy Ferguson at Battle Tapes in Nashville, we together created what we consider to be a collection of songs that move and move through you, from the dashboard to the dance floor, from Decatur to Dornburg, from Dorchester to Detroit.
Suck it up, hippies. This music is our attempt to extend the boundaries of our expression and have some fun. It’s not Americana, house, techno, trap, juke, or blaze. Why would it be? And like any good diet, it will be reviled then ultimately loved by all who give it a chance to work its way into their lives.”
September seems a long way away but we can already get a taste of what they’ll be throwing our way with the first single from the album, ‘Till Someone Gets Hurt’. Give it a listen now.
