DJ-Kicks (Hercules and Love Affair) [DJ Mix]

DJ-Kicks (Hercules and Love Affair) [DJ Mix]

In 2012, four years after Hercules & Love Affair’s self-titled debut album helped kick off a revival of classic house and disco (and a spirited defense of the music’s proudly queer roots), the group’s founder, Andy Butler, returned with a DJ-Kicks set that put his respect for the past into practice. Not everything here is old—In Flagranti’s “Magojiro” and Ha-ze Factory’s “A Bit of Redemption” both date to the time of the mix—but the sound is resolutely old-school, steeped in swirling organs, snapping drum machines, and crowd-stoking diva vocals. A late-’90s pick from UK duo Mankind opens the set on a funky note before Butler jumps backward a decade into acid house and EBM. Cloud 9’s 1992 tune “Do You Want Me” makes for a spine-tingling middle stretch of deep house before Mark Imperial’s “The Acieed That Ate New York” introduces a renegade 303. And the closing pairing of Jump Chico Slamm’s “Feel Free” and Zam’s “Africa Freedom (Victor Simonelli Johannesburg Dub Mix)” make for a finale of eyes-closed house at its most blissful.

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