Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair

2008 debut album from the Electro outfit led by Andrew Butler and featuring Antony (from Antony & The Johnsons), Nomi, and Kim Ann. Andrew Butler emerged from making music for college-based dance projects into a fully-fledged recording artist, via the New York art scene. He hooked up with his friends and got them to collaborate and sing his songs and Hercules & Love Affair is the result. This album is 2008's most exciting dancefloor concoction, an arthouse vision of Pure Pop by way of futuristic Electronica and classic Dance music, where beautiful, bruising harmonies and tensile rhythms collide in resurgent soundscapes and emotive Disco workouts. The album is co-produced by Andrew Butler with Tim Goldsworthy of DFA at Plantain Studios in the midst of Manhattan, New York City.

Contains bonus video for "Blind". Album Description

I finally found them!

I saw "Blind" on Subterranean months ago, and was blown away by the video, the visualizations, and of course, the girl.
Here's the rub. I watch and record shows like this to keep up (sorta) on new music and if I like a genre, sound and video, I will most likely buy the music. The problem was that the title info at the beginning and end of the video said "undefined" for all the fields, like artist name, song name and produced by-etc.
I was beside myself. I needed to know who made this awesome video and hauntingly beautiful sound, and all I had to go on was "undefined" I went to my local indie record store and had them do a search of "undefined", what I "thought" was the possible title from what I "thought" an oft repeated line in the song was-no luck. I did a search of that nights Subterranean on MTV2, and it listed all the videos it showed but did NOT list mine.

Then I saw it on another Subterranean a month or so later, and was so excited to see it again, and guess what? Yep, it had the information for all the videos on that nights show and not this one again.
Needless to say, another search of the website and I saw a small black and white picture of the girl and bingo, I was in the Hercules appreciation fan club finally.

"Blind" brought me in to the fold, and there are many other really attractive songs on the album and I really enjoy listening to it. There are a couple of songs I can live without, but I enjoy finding new music of different styles. I grew up with the Beatles and it is more and more challenging to try to stay current with the sounds of today. I like indie stuff probably most. Anyway, maybe this isn't a 5 star but I would love to see them live. With the girl please! September 29, 2008

The Formula is a Total Fiasco

Dear Antony:

Please do another album where your voice quivers into uncharted emotional territory over your beautiful piano playing. You are no disco queen. Stay in your original genre. Even the song writing is bad on this.

A Fan August 14, 2008

Hercules and the Love Affair

Lovely! If you don't like or know much about disco, check this out anyway because it is fine and fun. Everyone needs a litte Hercules and the Love Affair.

Peace August 4, 2008

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!

As someone who's not too impressed with the dance music coming out nowadays, after hearing Hercules And Love Affair, I'm happy to say I was blown away. As a fan of Antony and the Johnsons and the DFA label, seeing these two work together, along with other fantastic new artists on this album, under the guidance of ringleader Andy Butler, a DJ making big waves on the dance scene here in NYC, together they take the groove of disco and add over 30 years of electronic and dance music progress to it, creating one of the most inventive albums in a long while. "Blind" is a total blast from the disco past, and hearing Antony sing over dance music rather than his slower paced solo work, is completely refreshing, and he makes it work beautifully. While also touching on dance music from all over the place including the 80s and much of the 70s, Hercules and the Love Affair is worth picking up and dancing to all summer long!

--DaVe Lipp

See more music reviews at www.shortandsweetnyc.com July 27, 2008

Dance music with clever twists!

I'd only ever heard of "Hercules & Love Affair" from glowing reviews I saw on loads of websites which piqued my interest. Listening to this album is like stepping back into the seventies; the Disco era in particular. Thumping bass lines, heavy synths, stomping beats, and loads of horns give a contemporary, yet retro feel.

Featuring the haunting mournful vocals of Antony Hegarty (from Antony & The johnsons) on most tracks, the group's eponymous debut features just 10 tracks, but each is outstanding, from more sombre opening cut "Time will", to the horn filled largely instrumental "Hercules' theme" (which reminds me a bit of eighties UK group Imagination).

Other upbeat numbers are the keyboard adorned "Athene", the very disco-ish "Blind", the throbbing horn-filled "This is my love" (with a Jazzy feel and spoken/sung vocals from DJ Andy Butler), the incredibly catchy "Raise me up", and closing cut "True false, fake real" (great percussion and a capella singing). "Iris" and "Easy" take the tempo down, both are subdued atmospheric numbers.

My favourite song is "You belong", which is House/Disco with a razor sharp bubbly synth line. Incredibly catchy and very clubby.

From the glowing reviews I'd read about the album, I half feared it would be one of those arty albums that would be greatly admired but difficult to get into. Happily, its not the case with this clever, superb album which just gets better with each spin. A stellar debut! July 14, 2008

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