Hercules And Love Affair – Hercules And Love Affair
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“Your disco needs you!” squeaked Kylie, but do you need your disco? The answer changes every few years, and if Hercules And Love Affair have their way, now is the time to embrace that glitterball all over again.
The fancy name, drenched in myth and romance, is really a front for New York hipster and DJ/producer Andrew Butler – ably assisted by cohorts light- and heavyweight. In the former camp are Kim Ann Foxman and Nomi, scenesters and gossamer-thin singers, in the latter the peerless Antony (…and the Johnsons) Hegarty.
Hegarty is the beating heart of a record that eschews the naff side of disco and settles on full-fathom deep soul. He brings his brandy-rich tones to five of the album’s 10 tracks and in the process opens up new realms of wonder at his talent – and its perfect setting. The room-shaking opening line of techno curtain-raiser ‘Time Will’ – “Don’t lie to me” – locks you in from the off, soon persuading you that Hegarty’s been wasting his time as a torch song crooner. The man’s a diva!
Antony’s crowning performance is his impassioned turn on single ‘Blind’, a horn-parping deep house groove that provides the album’s centrepiece. Other highlights include ‘Hercules Theme’ – the most straight-ahead disco floorfiller on the record, complete with woozy trumpets and seasick strings – and the atmospheric comedown of ‘Easy’, where you would swear The Beloved had returned to reclaim their chill-out throne.
But for a momentum-sapping final stretch, this would be the club record for any occasion, any year. As it stands, it’s just excellent.
Matthew Horton
