Hercules & Love Affair - NY Disco Diva's

Written by Thijs van Dun

July 1st saw the Return of the NY based diso legends lead by Andy Butler to Amsterdam. Their appearance at the Melkweg in the Dutch captital marked their fourth visit to the country in the past 12 months. After leaving DFA Records, Hercules & Love Affair released their second LP entitled Blue Songs on Moshi Records, which they are currently promoting all over the world. Hectic times for the one of the grooviest and coolest disco/electro/pop acts around.

Accomponying Andy Butler and his crew were an other NY based act. Azari & III produced on of the hottest tracks of the year; Reckless (With Your Love), which is very close to the sound of Hercules & Love Affair. If you ask me, the track could have been their just as well. Reckless made it on a lot of compilation, including Pete Tong & Felix Da Housecat's All Gone Ibiza 2011. The release of their Manhooker, showed Azari & III were very well able to develop their own sound. With remixes by Nicolaas Jaar Jamie Jones this one definetely shows they are on the right track.

Sadly enough we arrived a bit late, and were not able to see Azari & III's show, but we were right on time for Hercules & Love Affair. The idea of Hercules & Love Affair is, involving a whole handful of different artists, and that's how it was going to be, always. Kim-Ann Foxman, vocalist Nomi Ruiz, and all the kids that were working on the first record and the tour started doing their own stuff. Nomi left and started her band, bassist Andrew Raposo and keyboardist Morgan Wiley also have their own band.

There are a lot of artists which are interesting for the new H&LA set up. This time Butler has selected a different crew around him with debutantes like Shaun Wright and Aerea Negrot. Off course Kim-Ann Foxman was ever-present; she has a long friendship and a long-standing creative collaboration with Butler.

You'd never know it from his press photos - he's recognizable for his imposing physique-, but Andy Butler sounds like a big softy behind the decks. But then again, he has some balls showing physique while dancing on the front stage. It looked like he got off a Jean Paul Gaultier commercial shoot.

Anyway, once again the music was perfect. Groovy as allways. Entertaining as allways. And catchy as allways. Especially the hottest tracks from the album -‘Painted Eyes’ and ‘Visitor’- got the crowd at the Melkweg moving. Too bad we missed out on Azari & III but hey; it’s nice to check out New York’s hottest disco diva’s. Thanks Melkweg.

Photo credit: Gijs Liu