Lambchop – “So modern and so tight”

Steve Gullick

Lambchop – “So modern and so tight”

Steve Gullick

Earlier in 2019, Kurt Wagner’s long-running and adventurous Nashville project Lambchop released the new album This (is what I wanted to tell you). It’s the latest project to push Lambchop out of their alt-country roots and into strange new glitchy, digital frontiers. Today, Lambchop follow that album up with a new EP called Basement Tapes. (How had nobody thought of that title until now?) The EP features two remixes of album tracks — Group Listening’s take on “This is what I wanted to tell you” and Raven’s reworking of “Crosswords, or what this says about you.” And it also features one new track.

“So modern and so tight,” which Wagner made with Fog mastermind Andrew Broder, has a lot going on — glassy pianos, jittery drum machines, whirring synths, a contemplative dance-music thump. Wagner sings the song softly and plaintively, and he runs his voice through different filters and sequencers, making it sound alien. It’s a strange song and a pretty one, and you can hear it below.

On “So modern and so tight,” Wagner says:

This mix was created by Andrew Broder, a visual artist, musician, and producer from the wilds of Minneapolis. We met during the PEOPLE gathering in Berlin last summer. It was based on a track that I had started with Matthew McCaughan that was part of a group of songs we were working on for This (is what I wanted to tell you). Andrew edited and re-imagined the piece into something quite lovely and mysterious. So much in fact it’s really not so much a remix but a new song unto itself.

The Basement Tapes EP is out now on Merge.

more from New Music