HECUBA: FROM ALIENS TO AUDIO — SIR, THE RELEASE OF THE DUO’S NEW EP

by Marissa Tinloy

Hecuba the band originated on the set of a film: young Alabama choir-boy meets Tunisian songstress while conceptualizing an alien abduction. Jon Beasley was casting and Isabelle Albuquerque was slated to be the leading lady destined for a journey to outer space. That was Brooklyn in 2003. Since then, the cat-and-mouse duo, whose record poster is glibly reminiscent of fuzzy-faced Tom and Jerry—they have a song by the same name—have come West and sent their recreationally revolutionary sounds vibing into the music world via Echo Park, Los Angeles.

The duo, rising from the energy of Isabelle and Jon, recently released their first EP, Sir, a conglomeration of fresh, zinging sounds; beeps, blurps, and woops, and tightly demonstrative lyrics. Albuquerque’s whimsical yet forthright voice, intertwined with Beasley’s looping rhythms and inescapable drum beats, create a music that is purely and irrefutably, their own. Released in March of this year, the duo’s new album presents an eclectic mix of sonorously challenging tunes that are distinctively unchallenging to listen to.

With subjects that sway from a lonesome train station (hence, the melodious “Ch-Changes”) to a re-mixed redress of the Lucky Dragons’ project at the Whitney Museum, and rhythms that swing from perfect rhyme to blank verse, Hecuba is swimming in versatility. However, as Albuquerque sings in the EP’s namesake, Hecuba sets their own bottom-line and, in unpredictable ways, sticks to it: “…But I keep my own time like I keep my own rhymes,/ and I’m so polite that I respectfully decline.” Thus, amid a music scene that sometimes panders in brash ambiguity, there is a certain something-ness that highlights Hecuba: introspection as part of, rather than disparate from, everyday human existence.

Ultimately, Hecuba is a quirky, funky rock-pop-rap-soul duo that is “polite” without being light—now that’s something in itself, right?

Check out Hecuba’s upcoming shows in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Canada:

August 5 - Los Angeles, CA - Dublab presents Vision Version at Cinefamily
August 18 - Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
August 26 - Los Angeles, CA - The Smell
August 30- September 2 – Chicago, IL - with Lucky Dragons

Download the single “Sir” on Hecuba’s official website: http://www.hecubahecuba.com/get.html