Hercules and Love Affair (CD - 2008)

Hercules and Love Affair is the mythological-themed music project of erstwhile club-promoter and DJ/producer Andrew Butler. A devotee of underground club culture from disco's pre-whitewashed roots to the innovative early `90s dance music of Chicago and Detroit, Butler and his cohorts--who include Antony of Antony & the Johnsons--make forward-thinking house inspired by a canny appreciation and clever deconstruction of classic dance music tropes. Their self-titled debut is a grand revisit of past styles and motifs. Leading off with the synthetic percussive rattle of the mid-tempo Balearic torch song "Time Will," the sparse beats slink seductively into the mellifluous quaver of Antony's vocals. "You Belong" and "Blind," meanwhile, faithfully adhere to club music conventions, their looping percussion accents and vocal exaltations recalling the celebratory cadences of classic acid house. minimize