Hercules and Love Affair

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Hercules and Love Affair

I've definitely been slacking on my blogging this week, but I have to pay the bills somehow right? Anyway, someone at work mentioned Hercules and Love Affair to me the other day and I had somehow missed them completely. The record is a recommended staff pick from the folks at Waterloo, so you know it's been getting some blog-hype already. Hercules and Love Affair is a project from Brooklyn-based DJ Andy Butler featuring Nomi, Kim Ann Foxman and Antony Hegarty. I'm not really sure who Nomi or Kim Ann Foxman are but I know Antony Hegarty. Hegarty is the lead vocalist for Antony & the Johnsons, a New York-based cabaret/lounge-style piano group.

I had the chance to see Antony & the Johnsons a few years ago at Boston's, Paradise Rock Club, and the show was pretty awesome. My only negative comment about it was that Antony Hegarty sings with very little effort, so the song moments that I thought would be heart-wrenching were just easily reached notes for Hegarty. This Hercules and Love Affair record is a completely different tone for Hegarty's voice but it matches up beautifully.

The sound is disco, with a more modern, urban edge the mix of Antony Hegarty's androgynous vocals make the songs haunting and somehow European-sounding. I suppose it's no coincidence that most of the tour dates for this band are in Europe. In fact they only have 4 U.S. dates listed on their MySpace.

Now I'm not entirely sure the Mp3 below will work for everyone but you should definitely try it out. See there is a "Free" Mp3 posted on the official EMI Chrysalis site for the band but the deal is you have to sign up for a mailing list. However I have taken the liberty of doing that for you to fetch this link:

Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules' Theme

Video and more after the jump...

I didn't mention above but Hercules is on DFA records, which gives them some serious cred. DFA is James Murphy's dance label based in New York, Murphy is the brains behind LCD Soundsystem. I caught LCD Soundsystem at Boston's, now defunct, Avalon and it was one of the most surprisingly awesome shows of my life. See I was trying to catch M.I.A. who was just opening for LCD Soundsystem, I only heard her do two songs, then LCD came out and just blew everyone away. Their live band syncopation is an undeniably ass-shaking, good time.

Here's a vid from Hercules and Love Affair: