It was always meant to be this way. When Andy Butler founded Hercules And Love Affair in 2006, his vision was to create something that was in a constant state of flux. A revolving door policy when it comes to singers. Evolving sounds to keep things fresh. Never getting too comfortable with a particular sound. Relentlessly exciting.

Famously, Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons sang on Hercules and Love Affair’s 2008 debut single, Blind; six minutes of future retro-disco voted the Song of the Year by Pitchfork. Taking his lead, Kim Ann Foxman, Kele Okereke, Nomi Ruiz, Area Negrot, Shaun and Mark Pistel have all contributed vast swathes of talent over the subsequent years.

Hercules and Love Affair will always be ruled by Butler’s encyclopedic knowledge of 40 years of NYC dance music, from disco to house and beyond to the DFA era; the effortless way he distills that knowledge into timeless grooves; soulful, classic house-inspired vocals; and that bittersweet, delicious nocturnal melancholy that the best dance music has always tapped, the joy of dancing away a broken heart at 4am.

The latest divas to lend their vocal skills to HALA are HowAboutBeth, Stef Gustaph and Whitney Fierce. Butler met Beth at a house party in Vienna when he heard her singing in the next room. He saw Stef perform at a club he was DJing at in Ghent, Belgium. ‘He was vocalising in that way that classic house singers used to do,’ says Butler. ‘Like one of the best of the best house vocalists. I thought: I’ve got to get that guy to sing with me.’ Meanwhile, he’s known force-of-nature Whitney for years.

In addition to the new HALA album, Butler is also set to contribute to German record label K7!’s benchmark DJ mix series, ‘DJ Kicks’. There are few people who know more about dance music history than Andy Butler, but he combines it with an approach that’s bang up to date, recontextualising classic tracks with disco that sounds like it’s been beamed in from the 22nd Century. It’s a riveting prospect, released in October 2012.

Date: 6 Oct (SAT) | Tickets: $350 | Reservation: (853)6638-4999 / [email protected]

For More Information: http://www.facebook.com/events/464310786924205/