With the world slowly but surely returning to the dancefloor any release on the über-cool New York DFA label incurs a heightened sense of interest far beyond most other labels. Synonymous with setting the pace DFAs in house production whiz kid Tim Goldsworthy has done it again with one Andrew Butler, a young DJ who has set out to drag dance music back to its roots. Butlers apprenticeship was honed in the gay clubs of Denver and on this their debut album Hercules & Love Affair capture the underground groove that gay clubbers furrowed throughout the disco and Chicago/Detroit House eras. While Butler is undoubtedly the star, the motley crew he has gathered around him for the project is a huge attraction in itself. Their record company describes them as ‘a pan-sexual mix for our troubled times’ and any band that makes main guest vocal contributor Antony Hegarty of Antony & The Johnsons look like a peripheral figure in the exotic stakes has to be embraced as a breath of fresh air. Unlike the Scissor Sisters, who in fairness have knocked out some modern dance classics over the last few years, H & LA seem like a genuine slice of gay exotica. These include transsexual vocalist Nomi; dancer Shayne, a gay B-boy and mainstay of New York’s vogue scene and Kim Ann Foxmann, a Hawaiian lesbian jewellery designer famed for running a notorious club called Mad Clams, where one could apparently get away with anything – smoking, sex, drugs, peeing in the corner, dancing naked. Heady stuff but the personalities of its performers never get in the way of a banging tune or the records tender moments where Hegarty’s inner grace and vocal vulnerability shines through. What makes this album so exciting is that when the beats and blips are pared back the song still stands tall and strong, as memorable in the still of your sitting room as on the pumped up atmosphere of the dancefloor. Athene, Blind and You Belong were crafted for your dancing pleasure while Iris and Easy soothe the soul with some delicious downtempo beats. The attention to detail is superb as silky strings glide over disco rhythms and horns tussle it out over banging bass drums with fun as the underlying theme at all times. Hegartys inclusion is inspired giving the music a dark emotional not normally associated with this sound as Butler strives to both create a new dance thread while recreating the old classic grooves. It works brilliantly.
See also: Frankie Knuckles/Jamie Principle – Your Love [Trax]. Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters [Polydor]. Arthur Russell – The World Of Arthur Russell [Soul Jazz]
