Hercules and Love Affair

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Editorial reviews

Album Description
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".

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-08-14 rating:
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

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review by: date: 2008-08-04 rating:
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

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review by: Psychpoet date: 2008-07-27 rating:
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

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review by: date: 2008-07-14 rating:
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 "Athene", 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!


review by: vedderoh1 date: 2008-07-03 rating:
Excellent debut
I am always hesitant to give a five star review to a record. Specially so early in the year, with big names still to come up with new material. But after listening to this CD non-stop for months (I got the import) it would be completely unfair to pack Hercules and Love affair with the rest of the dance acts that fill the racks of any given music store.

Andrew Butler has admitted his admiration for the forgotten and obscure music from the 70's and 80's and that influence can be heard from the opening track to the last note. Although "Time will" may be seen as a rather weak and slow opener despite Antony's vocals, "Hercule's theme" reduces that notion to ashes with a beat that puts your right in the middle of a 70's dance floor, with a twist.
Soon to be second single "You belong" continues the string of catchy tunes but it isn't until we get to the two outstanding tracks "Athene" and "blind" (hands down the best single released so far this year)that we can witness the potential of HALF.
Tempo goes down once again to build up to a climax with "Raise me up" and "True Flase/Fake real".

The reason behind the name of the band itself and the twelve tracks is Butler's love for mythology and the meaning of each of those characters. If you listen carefully to the lyrics you will not find a direct allusion to the composer's private world but rather a universal approach to life and relationships, being the love/pain marriage a strong presence throughout most of it.

Do not expect this record to be an immediate love affair. It took me at least more than three listenings to surrender to the world that it transports you to. Nor should you compare it to any "modern" dance record, for Butler's whole intention was to recreate and expand the rich complex sounds of the underground scene relying more on what power of the voice and scattered technology can convey.

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