Hercules & Love Affair - Blue Songs (2011)

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Hercules & Love Affair - Blue Songs (2011)

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'Blue Songs' is the second album from New York based dance act Hercules And Love Affair. Drawing upon late seventies New York dance culture as on their eponymous debut album, but the troupe relocated to Denver and worked with legendary techno producer Patrick Pulsinger on this record. This effort is a halcyon collage of sound, referencing everything from Tony Humphries' Zanzibar, The Sound Factory to classic house and disco. It also features a guest collaboration with Kele Okereke. It includes the single 'My House'.

Review
Blue Songs sees Hercules lynchpin Andy Butler and his shape-shifting array of chums return, after scoring gold in the collaborative and critical sense with a self-titled 2008 debut. That breakthrough was spearheaded by the sublime Yazoo-channelling single Blind, with vocals by Antony Hegarty (of …and the Johnsons fame); its parent LP a record justifiably celebrated as one of the best of its kind to emerge in the last decade.

For the follow-up, Butler has moved away from the distraction-heavy New York scene in favour of his hometown of Denver; he also recorded in Vienna with techno legend Patrick Pulsinger. Again, a troupe of contributors has been assembled – appearing alongside mainstay Kim Ann Foxman are Venezuelan singer Aerea Negrot, Shaun Wright and Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke. The results mostly reference the 1985-1994 house era that Butler’s own label, Mr Intl., operates within. But this is no pastiche of that time, more a further exploration – and added elements of future disco ensure Blue Songs is very much relevant in 2011.

Opener Painted Eyes, featuring the octave-tastic lungs of Negrot, is pure 21st century Sylvester. Lead single My House couldn’t be more 1989 hands-aloft deep house – you expect Adeva to pop up at any moment; even its accompanying video seems like a lost episode of Dance Energy. Boy Blue features mellow acoustic strums underpinned by a menacing electronic throb and brass swells, sounding not unlike something from Screamadelica. Kele’s contribution to Step Up continues his disco epiphany, and drags him even further into the house nation; and there can be no better tune than the uptown Chic disco of Falling for getting ready to before a big night out. The album closes with a slowed-down abstract take on Sterling Void’s It’s Alright – the sentiments work, even if they are lost a bit in the non-largeness of its soundbed.

Hercules and Love Affair have vaulted over any second album worries with a jubilant and celebratory collection of large tunes. Blue Songs has the ability to sound great whether you’re cleaning the flat, swinging in a hammock or heading down the rave-up. Smashing stuff.

–Ian Wade