Hercules & Love Affair - Sidetracked

New York DJ Andy Butler’s Hercules & Love Affair preceded the current disco vogue with first single Classique #2 in early 2007. Their subsequent LP was an intensely soulful collection of late ’70s disco, Chicago house grooves and early Detroit techno, accurately recreated with slavish dedication. Now, Butler has recorded an intensely soulful mix of late ’70s disco, Chicago house grooves and early Detroit techno, with a few new tracks, to show off his influences, as if we hadn’t heard them already. So, few surprises, but instead a solid blend of obscure dancefloor anthems from those carefree times before donk. Despite the obvious emotional exuberance which bleeds from every track, it has a curiously restrained feeling, perhaps because this kind of thing never sounds as good if you’re not dancing on a biscuit-sized E, hugging a sweaty, naked stranger, lost in the smoke and mirrors of Studio 54. Good times.