Dryvetyme Onlyne

Hercules and Love Affair
Hercules and Love Affair
DFA; 2008

Let’s be honest with ourselves. Do we really know the logistics, the details behind the resurgence of dance/danceable music within the indie rock community and/or the larger music world? Sure, I’m more than aware that history is completely and totally cyclical – one of humanity’s best and worst features is that we tend to repeat ourselves rather frequently, bringing back around the good, the bad, and the very ugly from the past. But to simply declare that an entire crop of musicians and acts in the latter half of the first decade of the twenty-first century are merely borrowing copiously from late disco and early New Wave to create their seemingly “fresh” sounds is to cheapen both the source material and the current incarnations. Is there a larger reason, a more overarching resonating rationale for the innumerable bands that have cropped up in the past few years that have the ability to compel even the whitest hipster out on to the dance floor to shake his/her thang?

Personally, there is something to the argument declaring that, for all of the folky, indie, arty music available, something is has been missing for awhile. Call is soul (Sasha Frere-Jones would), call it heart, call it a burning desire to inculcate a sense of passion and fun back into music, but whatever it might be, the folks over at DFA Records have plugged themselves into that zeitgeist and they’re pressing their advantage for all it’s worth. Fresh off the 2007 success of LCD Soundsystem’s Sound Of Silver, this forward-thinking record label has released the eponymous debut LP from Hercules and Love Affair (the brainchild of DJ Andy Butler) to an awaiting, adoring public. From the pulsing bass rhythms and always-present-but-never-cheesy horn samples to the driving funk drum patterns, the record is pure retro-future bliss, calling to mind Sly and the Family Stone and Depeche Mode, with dashes of ABBA.

Yet, what makes this album some of the most intelligent dance music of this decade is the curiously evocative nature of the arrangements that rest not on safe formula, but instead up the ante on its predecessors’ work. The group has brought together its influences, distilled them through a contemporary pop filter, and fronted the music with a series of oddly contrasting voices (including that of Antony from Antony and the Johnsons on half the tracks) to create this captivating record that is at times dark and creeping, while also joyful and smile-inducing. Led by the lead single “Blind,” a barnburner destined for stunning remixes and mashups, the record also features “You Belong,” with its Quincy Jones styled R&B feel, and “Raise Me Up,” a cut that drinks deep from both dubstep (the synths) and disco (the rhythm section). So, whether it’s the beats, the breaks, or the impeccable instrumentation, this album is destined to be included on many end-of-the-year “Best of 2008” lists. So, in the end, it matters not why people have started dancing again; what’s more important is that they are and that they have music like Hercules and Love Affair to help them with that dancing.

“Blind” (video)
“Blind” (music)
“Blind” (Hercules Club Mix)

Pitchfork Interview with DJ Andy Butler