Emotions In Dance: Hercules And Love Affair

There’s something different about Hercules and Love Affair. Take a look around and you’ll see that dance music has become pretty macho of late. Whatever sub-genre you take – indie crossover, dubstep, electronica, nu-rave, whatever – it’s all dominated my men. Not only that, but it’s kind of lost it’s fun and it’s soul. You get fucked and you listen and you dance. It’s become mechanical and you can’t connect. Not like when Massive Attack’s ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ was about and you could feel it on your skin. That was seventeen years ago.

And no one’s really noticed. I sure has hell hadn’t. But Andrew Butler, head honcho of disco revivalists Hercules and Love Affair certainly had: “Dance music has become very impersonal. I’m fond of music that exists beyond serving the purposes of being the soundtrack for a car commercial. I’m interested in emotional music and I’m interested in people. I’d rather hear about a person than a computer.”

And an increase in women appearing on or cranking out the music could help serve that purpose. “Dance music totally needs more women in it. If it did I think it would be more emotive. It would resonate more with people, beyond lyrics and vocals. But even there, it would be wonderful if there were a whole new crop of female dance diva singers.

“There’s a machismo to DJ culture and dance music. It’s sort of aggressive. It’s less about emotional expression and more about sexiness and getting wasted and partying. It’s kind of such a bore.”

Hercules &Love Affair’s eponymous debut album was out last Monday (10 March) and is a cool ride through fresh versions of an underused dance genre – disco. But it’s unfair to pigeonhole them to disco. Some of the record is exceedingly camp (‘Hercules Theme’). But it flits from down-tempo old-school house music (‘Iris’), intricately experimental smoothness (‘Free Will’), to enormous, floor filling, emotive anthems (‘Blind’) and beyond. ‘Blind’ is the record’s lead single and features Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons fame. But it’s far from a cheap bringing in of a name vocalist to boost awareness. The track was recorded four years ago and it’s Hegarty’s best vocal performance. He sounds free, released from the heavy chains of his cripplingly introspective Johnsons.