New Music

Hercules & The Love Affair Re-Emerge…Fabulously.

  • June 4, 2014
  • 4 min read
  • 133 Views

hercules and the love affair, house, disco, dance

The collaborative rotating door of personalities that makes up Hercules and Love Affair has always been a broad church. Ringmaster Andy Butler says he has only one consideration when assembling a new line-up for a pristine phase of his epic musical journey through the dynamics of past, present and future night-life. “The key to the Hercules project is that I don’t want people coming to the table with nothing to say.”

The new Hercules cast is impeccable. John Grant was first into the fold and unearthed a new way for Andy to record. His sexy tomcat voice and lyrical ability for translating hardship into elegance lent themselves greatly to the new album and the collaboration ʻI Try To Talk To Youʼ is an album highlight, future single and uniquely Hercules. Another tremendous voice was found in the chameleon Rouge Mary, backstage at a Hercules show in Paris, looking “like a member of Fields of the Nephilim” in a floor length trenchcoat, wide-brimmed hat and heels. Rouge showcases a deep, fierce, spiritual voice found through a gospel education, with a look found through a degree in New Romanticism. Similarly Andy encountered Belgian singer Gustaph at a live gig. He has that perfect mezzo soprano voice that can handle a whole Sylvester vibe. On the first EP from the new album, Gustaph heralds the acid pop house masterpiece, ‘Do You Feel The Same?’. And rounding out the vocalists is the smoky-voiced virtuoso Krystle Warren. John Grant had introduced Andy to Krystle’s voice on a Youtube clip of her singing her own immortal heartbreak classic ‘Circles’. Tears ensued, with an inquiry as to who this crooner was. In Andy’s words, “Two months later Krystle was in Vienna and we were working together in what has been one of the most loaded musical relationships of my life.”

After finishing the last Hercules tour, in support of second album ‘Blue Songs’, Andy decamped to Vienna because “it was quite clear that this was a fundamentally European operation.” He found a tremendous old analogue studio in the city and began sketching his ideas down on tape. “I wanted ten minute tirades of 909s, nasty bass-lines, stormy, bleary-eyed sounds, fiery, rough, tough and ragged old school house productions that sounded almost techno. I didn’t want polite, I wanted aggressive.” Techno and Electro specialists and classic house devotees appeared through mutual friends in Vienna in the form of Haze Factory. They had already served up a great remix of Butler and Shaun J Wright’s “Forever More”. The rough collision of techno and house had already convinced Andy to take them on for the new Hercules album. Industrial stalwart Mark Pistel, also joined in on production duties, as a perfect compliment with a noise based, sample oriented take on swinging 909 drums.

This aesthetic coupled with substantial tales of emotional triumph makes for something that does not happen in dance music very much anymore. Put actual songwriting into the mix, and you have the goal of Hercules 3.0: meaningful house music that IS pop music and can speak to the most musically adept of tastes. More now than ever it is about delivering something deeper to the hedonistic precept of Hercules & Love Affair. “I am fascinated by belief,” Andy says, “Maybe the nightclub isn’t just decadent and meaningless.” His words resonate past memories of hearing the gospel house tones of Sounds of Blackness, Ten City and Mass Order under a mirror-ball. Andy lived and wowed through Francois Kevorkian and Danny Krivit’s pivotal Millennial Sunday night secular/spiritual nightclub transcendence, Body&Soul, in New York. Every house fanatic saves a special place for the gospel spiritual ‘Stand on the Word’ revitalized by Larry Levan. If they had done Greek Mythology already, why not God? So pay attention to the decree: let the party begin, once more with meaning!

Share Button
About Author

Chris Ryan

Chris Ryan is an accomplished promoter, event planner, producer, activist, counselor, poet and blogger. Within the course of two and a half years Chris Ryan has worked with some of NYC's most established promoters/event planners, been named 2007′s GaySocialite of the year, granted a promoter of the year award from NYC's most famous gay establishment, Splash. He's worked in some of NYC's top venues including; Avalon, Capitale, Cipriani, Cielo, Pacha, Element, Le Poisson Rouge, XL, G Lounge, Plumm, Hilton Hotel, Indigo Hotel, Spirit, Myst/Quo, Splash, The Ritz, Vlada, Roseland Ballroom, Heaven, etc. In 2008, Chris Ryan has begun to unveil some of the most innovative & unique parties New York City has ever seen. The Fusion events "fuse" together all disciplines of art into an event that remains diverse yet cohesive at the same time. ChrisRyanNYC.com won best gay promotions website from NYC Event Patrons in 2008 & he was granted an award from the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, Gov. Patterson & Michelle Clunie (QAF) saluting him for his hard work in nightlife. Chris Ryan has also begun working with many renown companies, including; doctors, lawyers, physicians, modeling agencies & more. Chris Ryan has been responsible for wide-scale promotions for all these companies & generating tremendous business. Chris Ryan has even started to become National with events taking place in LA & Miami this year. In May of 2009 Chris Ryan received the very prestigious honor of being named a "40 Under 40″ Gays in America by the Advocate Magazine. He also created three successful parties that generated over 1,500 patrons each. In January of 2010 Chris Ryan was featured as one of the top promoters to look out for in Noize Magazine Chris Ryan joined forces with legendary promoter/event producer, Lee Chappell and created one of the most talked about events of all 2010, Desire @ Capitale. Chris Ryan and Lee featured one of the most outstanding artists NYC has ever seen, "Oh Land." Her performance coupled with an exquisite and unforgettable set design added to this extravagant event that held over 1,000 patrons in one of NYC's most successful PRIDE events! Chris Ryan then joined forces with legendary Pacha promoter, Rob Fernandez in addition to Jake Resnicow and Tommy Marinelli to bring one of the largest and most successful parties worldwide to NYC, MATINEE. The event on Governor's Island saw over 2,000+ attendees and one of the most ambitious productions ever. In 2011 Chris Ryan started Emerge Music Promotions with business partner Darren Melchiorre. Emerge Music promotions began signing artists with plans to develop and market the artists to the community at large. Emerge Music promotions has big events planned for 2012 and 2013. Chris Ryan debuted the IMAGE events which took place on top of two of NYC's most beautiful rooftop venues, Rare View and Indigo Hotel. The events were blogged everywhere and featured the fashion designs of several clothing designers, artists and photographers. Chris Ryan felt that fashion and art should be displayed at every event and attracted the likes of Malan Breton, Calvin Klein and even Katy Perry. Chris Ryan began an extremely successful event which incorporated the concept of a house party into a nightclub atmosphere. The event Twist'D at G Lounge has been one of the most talked about events in NYC and allows it's audience to play nearly-naked Twister, beer pong, flip cup & more with other attendees. Chris Ryan was granted an excellence in volunteering award from AVP (Anti-Violence Project) for all his efforts in supporting the organization. 2013 has a very promising landscape on the horizon and Chris Ryan is complacent in saying "you haven't seen anything yet!"

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.