Yeah I will do for sure. When is it actually out?
― Ronan, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 21:21 (sixteen years ago) link
march 10 I think
― dmr, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 21:22 (sixteen years ago) link
what is the tracklist everyone's looking at btw? i got some version w/ 10 tracks...
― deej, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 21:27 (sixteen years ago) link
i've got one w/ 10 too
i think it's the real one
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 12 February 2008 21:29 (sixteen years ago) link
so no classique
― deej, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 21:34 (sixteen years ago) link
i thought classique was a separate release
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 12 February 2008 21:36 (sixteen years ago) link
1. Time Will 2. Hercules' Theme 3. You Belong 4. Athene 5. Blind 6. Iris 7. Easy 8. This Is My Love 9. Raise Me Up 10. True False, Fake Real
― jaymc, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 21:37 (sixteen years ago) link
an entire set of nu-disco just sounds like a warmup DJ to me.
so true!
but "blind" when played in a club (and preferably the "club mix") just sounds like it has come from outer space. the vocal makes me feel how i imagine it would be to be on opium. so warm inside!
the knuckles mix to me sounds like BAD funky / handbag house. hated that sound then, hate it now. mr. knuckles can do so much better.
― stirmonster, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 21:38 (sixteen years ago) link
A couple tracks aside (inc. the Hercules Club Mix of Blind), the album sounds (from a production standpoint, at least) like a slightly "edgier" version of a Naked Music release.
― Andy K, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 21:43 (sixteen years ago) link
Okay I am listening to the Hercules Club Mix now, it seems a lot more interesting and not as horrible and middy as the original mix, I can imagine enjoying it in a club since there's actually some space in there.
that original mix is wretched tho, it sounds like the Scissor Sisters.
― Ronan, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 21:51 (sixteen years ago) link
ronan do you mean the original "blind" or the frankie knuckles mix? i find the original sort of boring--one of the weaker on the album i think--but the fk remix is way is lush and pretty without losing any sharpness or bounce; its totally danceable and interesting and perfect for antony
xpost haha ok
― max, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 21:54 (sixteen years ago) link
jaymc's tracklist is the same thing I've got
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 21:55 (sixteen years ago) link
hehe, yep! I really can't believe how hackneyed the music in the original is.
― Ronan, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 21:58 (sixteen years ago) link
now liveblog 3: the frankie knuckles mix
― Ronan, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 22:00 (sixteen years ago) link
after 10 seconds of this I've decided a cup of tea would be more pleasing.
Listening to the whole album after a week of living (and liking a lot) with "Blind," it sounds ok to pretty good. I wish Frankie Knuckles had done the whole thing.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 22:02 (sixteen years ago) link
sometimes i wonder if you like big dumb hooks, ronan. it's really okay if you don't, but to call 'em hackneyed makes me say duh! really loudly at computer screen.
― BleepBot, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 22:07 (sixteen years ago) link
I love them! But I don't see the hooks in the original really...the music sounds like every discopunk/nu-disco trick of the last few years just slapped up.
― Ronan, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 22:08 (sixteen years ago) link
Sounds more like straight-up disco tropes to these ears...
― BleepBot, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 22:16 (sixteen years ago) link
I think (maybe with some time, to echo arguments made elsewhere on ilm these days) that knuckles remix might stand out as one of the better things to come out of H&LA. in context, it's proper garage, done like no other nowadays. it's lush, the production is both restrained and faultless. and I agree that tune is impossibly catchy!
really liked the extended "athene", "roar" from the single was all right, as for the album I find it too contrivedly assembled but this is how I feel about half of everything, so. there are a hundred reasons to enjoy AND be annoyed by those songs, it's not happening as an indistinct and carefree experience for me at all, especially when it gets rightfully cerebral, away from the dancefloor. the last track is like a lost bumblebee record though right? that one's a keeper.
― blunt, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 23:35 (sixteen years ago) link
This really is fantastic, except for "True False, Fake Real" - I could easily live without that. Just too many cartoony sound effects for me.
-- jon /via/ chi 2.0 wtf, my evil twin
― blunt, Tuesday, 12 February 2008 23:50 (sixteen years ago) link
put so much better than I could have phrased it
I heard it out on sat. night (at that joakim/DFA thing I mentioned above), sounded great
― dmr, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 00:02 (sixteen years ago) link
dunno if opium makes you warm but it sure makes you horizontal.
― blunt, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 00:07 (sixteen years ago) link
Count me in with the 'not feeling it' camp - I liked the Frankie Knuckles track, really liked Blind but the rest of it was just so DULL. I dunno, it seems a bit late in the day for this sort of tasteful, earnest disco revivalism.
It also helped me crystallise a problem I've had with Italians Do It Better (which I really like a lot of). It seems a slightly blokey, nerdy version of italo, without the sense of silliness or vulgarity, and both of those are largely absent in the Hercules & Love Affair record as well. Like, I'm grateful to the crate-diggers who have kept this stuff alive and appreciated but I don't necessarily want all the fun bits, that might be seen as embarrasing, filed off as well.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 10:19 (sixteen years ago) link
"Hercules Theme" seems pretty playful and silly to me
― deej, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 14:16 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah i don't find this particularly duller or staler sounding than anything else current, but i haven't heard the full album. think it's interesting that some like H&LA but not KP and some are the opposite - don't really understand either because I like both and tho they don't really sound alike they're fulfilling the same purposes for me. i guess they both often aim for pleasantness rather than intensity, dance-wise, which might put some off.
― blueski, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 14:38 (sixteen years ago) link
i think the new kelley polar is a grower. i like how it is sequenced.
so how close is the frankie knuckles remix to "the whistle song"? cuz that's smoooth.
seems like the general opinion here is quite divided. the H&LA i have heard definitely belongs on DFA cuz it has one foot each in the dance and rock camps. it's like there isn't enough of either though.
― tricky, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 15:18 (sixteen years ago) link
seems like it would work well in a mix a la fabriclive 36 though.
― tricky, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 15:22 (sixteen years ago) link
The club mix of Blind is tremendous, really brings the best out of Antony's vocals, like he's booming out over this huge sound system. Love it.
― Matt DC, Saturday, 16 February 2008 12:25 (sixteen years ago) link
otm, the club mix brings much drama via the reverb knob. Excellent.
― kenan, Saturday, 16 February 2008 12:43 (sixteen years ago) link
So far my First Quarter 2008 mix is just the whole Hercules and Love Affair record.
-- kenan, Friday, February 15, 2008 11:30 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link
― kenan, Saturday, 16 February 2008 12:49 (sixteen years ago) link
artwork for blind at dfa's myspace page. too lazy to upload it here.
― jaime, Saturday, 16 February 2008 18:31 (sixteen years ago) link
Upload?
http://www.dfarecords.com/myspace/hercules/blind.jpg
― kenan, Saturday, 16 February 2008 20:03 (sixteen years ago) link
errr ... post, i mean?
― jaime, Saturday, 16 February 2008 21:08 (sixteen years ago) link
Frankie Knuckles remix here.
― Eazy, Sunday, 17 February 2008 17:51 (sixteen years ago) link
I love songs with this kind of structure, where everything is building up in the first few minutes to that "I feel blind" line.
― Eazy, Sunday, 17 February 2008 17:52 (sixteen years ago) link
Amazing Cover
― I know, right?, Sunday, 17 February 2008 18:00 (sixteen years ago) link
I dunno, it seems a bit late in the day for this sort of tasteful, earnest disco revivalism.
nooooo I just got here!
― 31g, Sunday, 17 February 2008 18:12 (sixteen years ago) link
I feel that same way about the sound of it and the percussion, but that's again, with "Blind" anyway, where having a quality song behind it makes the retro style work (as with "Crazy", as with The Strokes' first record, etc.).
― Eazy, Sunday, 17 February 2008 18:23 (sixteen years ago) link
OK, I've listened to "Blind" 20 times today. It's the harmonies on that "I feel blind" that get me each time (something that gets lost in the Frankie Knuckles remix), and the beat right after that where the horns come in and I imagine all the dry ice around the dance floor going whoooosh and all the shirts coming off.
― Eazy, Monday, 18 February 2008 02:47 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah, the horns and how antony sings "i feel it" are my favorite parts of the song.
andy's also got a side project called love & loveless that's sounding really good. he played a couple tracks at the party we threw with him in december as well as on bis a few months ago
― jaime, Monday, 18 February 2008 06:13 (sixteen years ago) link
aaaahh i'm listening to it right now ... so satisfying. esp the last couple minutes
― jaime, Monday, 18 February 2008 06:17 (sixteen years ago) link
When the outro starts, is he saying "in movieland"? Like he's a blind man in movieland? What is this song about? Is it a diagnosis manifesto, like "Crazy"?
― Eazy, Monday, 18 February 2008 18:59 (sixteen years ago) link
no i think he's just saying "mm-a-feelin' "
― jed_, Monday, 18 February 2008 19:03 (sixteen years ago) link
You may have abandoned this thread already Ronan, but you should listen to the first single with "Classique #2" and "Roar" as those two (Classique #2 in particular) sound a bit different than the album tracks I've heard. I prefer them.
― matt2, Monday, 18 February 2008 22:00 (sixteen years ago) link
Roar reminds me a bit of A Guy Called Gerald.
― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 17:29 (sixteen years ago) link
Off a couple of low key listens in my office, I'm really liking the album.
― Scik Mouthy, Thursday, 21 February 2008 12:37 (sixteen years ago) link
can a brother without enough net geek kudos to get an invite to any secret filesharing parties catch a PM'd break? anyone?
― straight, Thursday, 21 February 2008 13:39 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm sorry, what?
― Scik Mouthy, Thursday, 21 February 2008 13:47 (sixteen years ago) link
cant pick up a promo of the album, would like a r/share link to one and trying to dress it up a bit to not sound like a scummer
― straight, Thursday, 21 February 2008 14:17 (sixteen years ago) link