By RACHEL GRAY
"Kansas City -- everybody should be dancing!" DJ Andy Butler shouted as galloping bass lines and hand claps introduced his disco-infused dance music project Hercules and Love Affair to the Record Bar last Friday night.
Although unaccompanied by the project's multiple collaborators -- vocalists Nomi, Kim Ann or Antony Hegarty (of Antony and the Johnsons) -- Butler's celebratory beats kept arms in the air and hips turning.
Adhering to the standard for dance concerts, the bass was loud. "Does the women's bathroom vibrate like it's getting bombed?" I was asked, along with: "I can feel my jeans vibrate." But the pounding bass seemed to induce the party atmosphere more than deafen it. People got up next to tables to dance before even reaching the dance floor, overwhelmed by the satisfying throng of continually swelled vibrations.
Hercules and Love Affair is sexy. It just is.
On top of rooted, unceasingly vibrant beats, a woman's voice screams; a one-liner is repeated, paused; the bass is kicked up a notch. There's something inherently fun about Hercules and Love Affair: Claps and hoots accompanying the long build-stop-climax keep the mood light, childish and free.
The music catered not only to dancers but also to dancers who need more than a three-minute song to get into it. Butler seems interested in dragging out the song: repeating lines, beat, rhythm, slowing everything down. The effect is an intensified progression, which horns and Latin beats spiral out of.
A wobbly, checkered, Tetris-like video was projected behind Butler as he leaned into his synthesized combinations. The dark room--interrupted with swinging neon-lights--was rife with spirited combinations, slow to change, but filled with variation when compiled and instantaneously mixed by the Colorado-born DJ. Though packed with dynamic synth-pop, strings and tooting jazz riffs, the beat was most important.
After the stage was dark, Butler engaged with the crowd, reliving a dance-floor occurrence with a fan and slapping his hands together in disbelief. "That was kind of fun," he said. "It was a little weird." People know Andy; they like Andy, take pictures with Andy, want Andy to sign their shoe. Fellow DJs were bright-eyed. Andy Butler packed up his case and left the Record Bar with fans waving and trailing after him to the van.
Comments (0)