Sophisticated Disco

I may be way late on this but better late than never... Hercules and Love Affair dropped their eponymous debut album last March and it's the best disco I've heard since The Avalanches' Since I Left You. If you haven't heard, Hercules and Love Affair is a music project from New York's DJ Andy Butler. Nomi Ruiz, Kim Ann Foxman and Antony Hegarty (lead vocalist in Antony & The Johnsons) provide amazing vocals over Butler's uptempo disco beats. It is interesting to note that Butler, Hegarty and Foxman are gay and Ruiz has undergone gender reassignment surgery. Butler says of the project and its namesake,

"There were myths in classical times that told stories about [Hercules'] various love affairs. He was reputed to love both men and women. I took the name after a story about Hercules and one of his specific lovers. I mean, I was just fascinated by the fact that, in classical times, the strongest man on Earth might have also been in love with a man and be heartbroken by a man, y'know? I thought it was an interesting detail."

Below is a link to the video for the second single from the album, which happened to be Pitchfork's "Best Song Of 2008".

Hercules and Love Affair - Blind