For nearly two decades, Andy Butler’s Hercules & Love Affair project has served as a beacon for electronic music rooted in queer history, intimacy, loss, and collective release. Today marks the arrival of Danseur PT 2 via Stratasonic Records, completing the ambitious eight-track collection and offering a profound, multi-sensory document of transatlantic club culture.
Created in close collaboration with Elín Ey (Hips & Lips) and Quinn Whalley (Paranoid London) the trio reuniting after the success of last year’s Someone Else Is Calling, the project bridges their shared devotion to acid house, vintage disco, and darker, atmospheric electronics. Where the first instalment delivered immediate, dancefloor-facing tension, PT 2 expands the narrative toward more reflective terrain. The Horrors’ Faris Badwan lends his unmistakable vocal presence to “Pirouette” and “Heaven,” alongside contributions from Hips & Lips on “Night on the Town” and Albrecht Van Doornik on “Flip Flop.”
At its core, Danseur is a living archive. Butler draws a direct line between the defining spaces of queer history, invoking the mythological aura of London icons Blitz and Taboo alongside New York’s legendary BoyBar. Yet the storytelling extends into deeply personal territories: “Night on the Town” pays homage to two women living openly in the 1960s, while the haunting closer “Pirouette” stands as a poignant tribute to two late visionaries, pioneering producer SOPHIE and longtime collaborator Aerea Negrot, who passed within months of each other.
The physical release mirrors this devotion to historical memory. Dedicated to Taboo resident DJ, filmmaker, and photographer Jeffrey Hinton, the package features Hinton’s rare personal archive of late-80s and early-90s nightlife, with imagery from iconic spaces like Heaven and Alternative Miss World scanned directly from original photographic prints. Complemented by Butler’s own Blitz-inspired portraiture and insightful Q&As featuring Hinton, scene matriarch Princess Julia, and Pet Shop Boys, Danseur goes beyond homage to bring the lived testimony, imagery, and enduring spirit of the underground directly into dialogue with the present.
Follow
@herculesandloveaffair
Danseur PT 2 is out now via Stratasonic Records: https://orcd.co/danseur
