Did you know that there’s a new album from Hercules and Love Affair out now? Neither did I. Hype surrounding Danseur has been scant, which is both a shame because it is a fantastic album. It’s also an album that can’t be described with whatever marketing buzzwords are trending this week, so I suppose the lack of buzz is to be expected.
For the uninitiated, Hercules and Love Affair is the project of DJ, musician and producer Andy Butler. Back in 2008, he unleashed a monster club hit, “Blind,” with Anohni on vocals. I’m hesitant to refer to the song as a banger because it’s pretty melancholy, but “Blind” still packs the floor nearly 20 years later. (In fact, I played it the night before writing this, and the night before that, in DJ sets.) In the years that have passed since then, Hercules and Love Affair has become synonymous with smart dance music over the course of five albums. Butler’s productions, which sit at the crossroads of disco, house and synthpop, are steeped in nightlife and LGBTQ+ culture For his sixth album, Danseur, Butler explicitly pays tribute to the queer club history.
Danseur is, technically, an album split into two EPs, the first of which came out in July. Danseur Pt. 2, hit the internet last week, which is when I also stumbled across one of the tracks on Spotify and then bought the digital full-length on Beatport. The physical release, which you can order through L.A.-based record label StrataSonic, includes all eight songs. I have not seen a copy of the vinyl yet, but the description on the StrataSonic website makes me want to buy it asap. The packaging includes 1980s and 1990s nightlife photography from the English DJ and filmmaker Jeffrey Hinton, as well as Butler’s own photos and Q&As with clubland luminaries.
For Danseur, Butler collaborated primarily with Elin Ey (Hips & Lips) and Quinn Whalley (Paranoid London), which whom he worked on the 2025 EP Someone Else Is Calling. Mucho of the sonic inspiration emanates from 1980s club music, but it’s not throwback sound. On “I Get High,” a very freestyle rhythm is juxtaposed with airy, almost ethereal vocals. “The Eyes of Love” has a touch of Erasure and the Pet Shop Boys flashbacks, but Ey’s vocals give it a contemporary spin. The instrumental “Flip Flop” is a descendant of Kraftwerk, Moroder and Cowley, but with a Hercules and Love Affair twist. (The best insight you’ll get into this album is by listening to Butler DJ. Check out his NTS set from July and/or his Resident DJ mix for KCRW.)
A standout on Danseur is a cover of “Boy,” the 1985 Book of Love song about New York’s Boy Bar. The song is something of a club classic in LA, at least if you go to clubs where the DJs are down with synthpop, so hearing a fresh take on the song, one that’s a little darker, a little more like hanging around a bar in the middle of the night, is a delight.
One of my favorite Hercules and Love Affair songs is “Controller,” which features Faris Badwan of The Horrors on vocals. (I used to play that one a lot back at The Lash.) Badwan sings on two songs for Danseur and both are heartbreaking and beautiful: “Pirouette,” which memorializes Aérea Negrot (who was featured on the Hercules and Love Affair song “Painted Eyes”)and SOPHIE, and “Heaven,” a song that is bleaker than the title implies. Both “songs “Pirouette” and “Heaven” tap into the darkest synthpop and techno sensibilities, so they would work in a goth club/darkwave night setting. I tried out “Heaven” really early in my set at Nocturno on Saturday night just to see how it sounded in the club, but, tbh, I still haven’t decided which one of these will end up in my sets. Maybe both?
Danseur by Hercules and Love Affair is out now.
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Follow on Instagram or sign up for the weekly, Beatique newsletter for updates on new stories and gigs.
Listen to the September, 2026 edition of Beatique, which also features music from Olivia Rodrigo, ear, Purity Ring, Brigette Calls Me Baby, Slayyyter and more.
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