Electro-dance Hercules music that jumps
Without otherworldly singer Antony Hegarty to hide behind, Andy Butler of Hercules and Love Affair has no choice but to make his dance music tauter and funkier than ever on the band's second album, "Blue Songs" (Moshi Moshi), and he succeeds by plunging into electro-pop history. The opening "Painted Eyes" blatantly steals its rhythm from New Order's 1983 classic "Blue Monday," only with less aggressive and more soulful and sensitive vocals. From there, with help from a handful of game and personable replacements for Antony, who departed the band to focus on his solo career, Butler weaves in and out of American disco, computerized German minimalism (the staccato "Answers Come In Dreams" has a distinct Kraftwerk feel) and slowed-down Tom Tom Club ("Leonora").
Like British peers Hot Chip, not to mention the best disco and house producers, Butler has a talent for using machines to make his music seem more human, not less. He has the sense to get out of the way of Shaun Wright's vocals on the plaintive ballad "Blue Boy"; "My House" fades out on a boisterous, scat-singing note by Aerea and Kim Ann; and Bloc Party's Kele Orekeke shows emotional range on "Step Up."
Still, for all the humanity on display, a robotic voice leaves the greatest impression: "No time to stand," it repeats in "Visitor," "It's time to jump." In the end, that's Butler's core sentiment.
