Sir is the first in a series of “concept” EP’s from Los Angeles based Hecuba, and is also
their debut record. On it, they expand upon ideas within the single, “Sir” to create completely new songs. It also includes a re-interpretation of “Sir” by Lucky Dragons (appearing in the 2008 Whitney Biennial). On the Sir EP, Hecuba explore a wide variety of musical ideas, beginning with the dark dub gospel of the original “Sir,” and moving through down-tempo sad dance cartoon music, to train-yard work song, abstract techno, and even straight-up doo-wop exaltations. Never easily categorized, Hecuba’s music has been likened to everything from a hip-hop dance party, to a punk electronic explosion, to something more introspective and strange. Devendra Banhart calls Hecuba the “best band in LA” (Harp Magazine). City Beat described a Hecuba performance as “syncretic pandemonium...brimming with punk, prog, hip-hop, and a kind of bracing dada,” while the LA Weekly says, “I was shocked. And in this day and age it is damn hard to be shocked. They are performers in a true sense.” Hecuba is Isabelle Albuquerque and Jon Beasley. Jon Beasley learned to walk and sing in an Alabama church choir, but left the south for the big cities, practicing music, art and film. The two first worked together on one of these films. A theatrical relationship developed into a musical one, and Hecuba was born. Isabelle’s performance background begins with her great grandmother’s Arabic big band in Tunisia, Africa, and travels across disciplines, generations, and continents to her work today. Together, they create a new kind of sound that is distinctly Hecuba. They have just finished a tour with Devendra Banhart, performed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and will be appearing at South by Southwest this year. When asked about their influences, they replied, “It’s as if Stanley Kubrick and Patti Smith had a baby, but it was home schooled at Pharrell’s mansion by Aphex Twin, Andre 3000, and Björk, all the while spending weekends with godfather and godmother Robert Wyatt and Wendy Carlos, who put it in a crib, put on a Charles Ives record, and let it all sink in.”
their debut record. On it, they expand upon ideas within the single, “Sir” to create completely new songs. It also includes a re-interpretation of “Sir” by Lucky Dragons (appearing in the 2008 Whitney Biennial). On the Sir EP, Hecuba explore a wide variety of musical ideas, beginning with the dark dub gospel of the original “Sir,” and moving through down-tempo sad dance cartoon music, to train-yard work song, abstract techno, and even straight-up doo-wop exaltations. Never easily categorized, Hecuba’s music has been likened to everything from a hip-hop dance party, to a punk electronic explosion, to something more introspective and strange. Devendra Banhart calls Hecuba the “best band in LA” (Harp Magazine). City Beat described a Hecuba performance as “syncretic pandemonium...brimming with punk, prog, hip-hop, and a kind of bracing dada,” while the LA Weekly says, “I was shocked. And in this day and age it is damn hard to be shocked. They are performers in a true sense.” Hecuba is Isabelle Albuquerque and Jon Beasley. Jon Beasley learned to walk and sing in an Alabama church choir, but left the south for the big cities, practicing music, art and film. The two first worked together on one of these films. A theatrical relationship developed into a musical one, and Hecuba was born. Isabelle’s performance background begins with her great grandmother’s Arabic big band in Tunisia, Africa, and travels across disciplines, generations, and continents to her work today. Together, they create a new kind of sound that is distinctly Hecuba. They have just finished a tour with Devendra Banhart, performed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and will be appearing at South by Southwest this year. When asked about their influences, they replied, “It’s as if Stanley Kubrick and Patti Smith had a baby, but it was home schooled at Pharrell’s mansion by Aphex Twin, Andre 3000, and Björk, all the while spending weekends with godfather and godmother Robert Wyatt and Wendy Carlos, who put it in a crib, put on a Charles Ives record, and let it all sink in.”
