Hercules & Love Affair music has always been about folding past, present and future together – and never more so than in the latest phase, encapsulated by the track that launches things, “Someone Else is Calling.”
If the song-first, ultra-gothic mind-movie of the last H&LA album “In Amber” was partly motivated by Andy Butler falling out of love with dance culture, this new body of work – an EP titled “Someone Else Is Calling” – is an unabashed resurgence of the love affair. A co-production with London underground veteran and inspiration to Butler, Quinn Whalley of Paranoid London and Decius, the lead single is a surging, tactile acid track woven around the vocal of Icelandic icon Hips & Lips aka Elín Ey – who hits that new wave disco sweet spot between Grace Jones and Yazoo era Alison Moyet.
Elín’s lyrics work perfectly with the bodily momentum of the sounds, circling around themes of self-possession and the urge to move on to the next experience, the next sensation: hunger for reality. And this taps into Andy’s feelings on escaping New York and moving to Belgium, discovering that dance culture was anything but the hollowed-out, identikit-festival-lineup conveyor belt he’d feared, and still had plenty of outposts where it was still – as he’d first experience it as a teen – about the hot, sweaty reality of diverse people seeking communion, communication and heightened ways of being in the here and now.
“Someone Else Is Calling” began during sessions in Iceland, where Butler and Elín Ey were working on material for Ey’s Hips & Lips project. Ey, who appeared on the fourth and fifth Hercules albums, steps into a new role here, delivering vocals that move from roaring dancefloor catharsis to emotional release. “Elín’s voice is one of the purest, most magical voices I’ve worked with,” Butler says. “We have a special ability to write together.”
The EP also marks Butler’s first collaboration with Quinn Whalley (Paranoid London / Decius), whose influence can be felt in the acid backbone of the title track and across the project’s techno–meets–house DNA. “To say I love Quinn wouldn’t be adequate,” Butler adds. “He’s always looking for the next twist in a song — working with him was a total joy.”
There will be more, much more, to follow from the partnership of Andy, Elín and Quinn. It digs deeper still into the decades of dance and other underground cultures that feed into this modern moment – but this shining beacon should give you a pretty good hint.
Someone Else Is Calling will arrive on one of Los Angeles’s most exciting new independent labels and creative hubs, StrataSonic, on December 14. The lead single of the same name, is out now. This marks the first collaboration between Hercules & Love Affair and Stratasonic.
artist: Hercules & Love Affair
title: Someone Else Is Calling
label: StrataSonic Records
cat #: STSC008
release date: 12 December 2025
format: vinyl & digital
tracklist:
1 Someone Else Is Calling featuring Hips & Lips
2 Crossed Lines featuring Hips & Lips
3 Body & Soul featuring Hips & Lips
4 That’s Not How Love Lives featuring Hips & Lips
Stay tuned at House ConnectFM Tracks of the Week selection and Listen to Hercules & Love Affair’s new music first
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