Hercules and Love Affair [ENHANCED] [IMPORT]

Hercules and Love Affair

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 11, 2008)
• Original Release Date: March 25, 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced, Import
• Label: Phantom Sound & Vision
• ASIN: B0012X44HE
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #120,983 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Time Will

2. Hercules Theme

3. You Belong

4. Athene

5. Blind [Full Album Version]

6. Iris

7. Easy

8. This Is My Love

9. Raise Me Up

10. True/False, Fake/Real

Editorial Reviews

Product 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". --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dance music with clever twists!, July 14, 2008

By	Nse Ette (Lagos, Nigeria) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Hercules and Love Affair (Audio CD)

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!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Disco is NOT Dead, April 16, 2008

By	D. Cardona (NY/NJ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I think this is the best dance record for 2008, and of course the year is young but I'll stick to those words.

Andy Butler has teamed up with Antony Hegarty to create a lovely dance record. The production is excelent, everything has a purpose and fits well. Even the touch of not using synth brass is a nice touch.

This record is proof disco is NOT dead. I highly recommend all of the remixes, especially the Frankie Knuckles remix of "Blind" - just mind blowing.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a sweetheart of a record, July 2, 2008

By	loud wizard (texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hercules and Love Affair (Audio CD)

Hercules & Love Affair has every element I want in a good dance record - excellent songwriting, great singing (the best I've heard on any dance record in a long, long time), snappy programming, great sounding live instruments, killer analog electronic sounds - it's just all around a jam-up record.

Andy Butler - Hercules & Love Affair's main man - is obviously a student of dance music, with classic disco being the most obvious touchstone of this record, but without any grating strings or gratuitous nostalgia. Acid house and Detroit techno also feature prominently in the mix.

And of course - the vocals. What most people will be thrilled with are the tunes featuring Antony Hegarty, and for good reason. He swoons and swells most magically, and in all the right places.

For the reviewer above who complained about this record being repetitive - you realize this is dance music, right? It's not some aleatory navel-gazing album, nor is it some super-ambitious nuevo prog. It's certainly not repetitive compared to the large majority of dance records that have been released in the last 10 years.