Hercules and Love Affair are the dominant force in the drive to bring disco back to the dance floors in America. First with their insanely great self-titled debut and now with Sidetracked, a DJ mix arranged by Hercules’ creative force Andy Butler. Not surprisingly, Sidetracked is predominately a disco record, either with classic disco-era tracks like Todd Terry and Class Action’s
“Weekend” or with retro-sounding tracks such as the new Hercules & Love Affair track “I Can’t Wait.” Acid house and straight-up old-school house also make cameos on Sidetracked early on with tracks by Dubwise and WestBam, but by the halfway point they’re gone, making the way for vintage disco extravaganzas such as Studio X, Ray Martinez and the Rainbow Team. This isn’t Nu-Disco, this is straight up ’70s and early ’80s old-school disco, and that’s not a sound that has aged well for some, no matter how much they like modern dance music. If you were around back then or just want to hear what your parents did coke to back in the day, then you’ll probably eat this up. But for those of you more interested in dance-punk, DnB, or other more 21st century dancefloor sounds, you probably won’t find much of note on Sidetracked. (Renaissance Recordings 2009)
