The group Lambchop have often been praised for their eclectic and ambitious musical outlook, beginning with a funhouse view on classic country music on their first few albums and evolving into an intelligent, visionary chamber pop ensemble. But even Lambchop's biggest fans probably didn't anticipate HeCTA, a side project created by Lambchop leader Kurt Wagner and featuring his bandmates Scott Martin (whose other projects include Hobbledeions) and Ryan Norris (also a member of Coupler). HeCTA was created as a vehicle for Wagner's growing interest in electronic dance music, and inspired in part by his appreciation of the book Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture 1970-1979 by Tim Lawrence. HeCTA wasn't Wagner's first brush with electronic music; he co-wrote the song "Give It" for X-Press 2, U.K. producers Zero 7 worked with Lambchop on a remix of the Nixon track "Up with People," and Lambchop collaborated with electronic duo Hands Off Cuba for an EP called CoLAB. HeCTA's debut album, 2015's The Diet, featured Wagner on vocals, keyboards, programming, and editing; Norris on synthesizers, vocoder, guitar, bass, programming, and editing; and Martin on drums, percussion, keyboards, programming, and editing. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi