1978 was a pivotal year in the evolution of dance music. Saturday Night Fever had hijacked disco from the gay, black and Latino underground scene and turned it into a strutting global pop phenomenon spurring DJs like Frankie Knuckles in Chicago and Larry Levan in New York to push the expansive, electronic dreams of Gorgio Moroder (I Feel Love) and Walter Gibbons (Ten Percent) towards what would eventually become House and Garage.

1978 was also the year that Andy Butler was born. Exactly 30 years later, with a little help from his vocalist friends Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons), Kim Ann Foxman and Nomi, Andy is reviving the spirit of real disco and the house sounds it spawned with enough passion and finesse to ignite both the underground and the pop world all over again.

In its name, sound and romantic, heroic spirit, Hercules And Love Affair is the result of Andy's dedication to the Classics: both the myths and legends of Ancient Greece and Rome that captured his imagination as a child, and the timeless club tracks that soundtracked the euphoria and delirium of his adolescence and adult life.

Born in Denver, Colorado, Andy was already composing modern classical pieces on the family piano when, aged 12, he had his first mind-blowing encounter with electronic dance music in the shape of Yazoo's 1982 Vince Clarke produced b-side Situation.

Inspired to share his new musical passion, at 15 Andy got a DJing gig in a gay bar and soon encountered DJ Garth of Wicked Crew, a San Francisco-based soundsystem set up by Brit ex-pat members of DJ Harvey & co's legendary London rave collective, Tonka Soundsystem.

At 18, Andy followed his head and his heart and left Denver to study music and art history at the private liberal Sarah Lawrence College in Manhattan and applied nocturnal mischief at New York's innumerable nightclubs. His first studio experiments included a Kraftwerk-inspired interpretation of Canadian disco don Gino Soccio's Runaway for Rashaun Mitchell, now principal dancer in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, to perform to.

In 2002 Andy met DJ, singer and jewellery designer Kim Ann Foxman, who having escaped from Hawaii to San Francisco as a teenage tearaway had also fallen under the influence of the Tonka / Wicked Crew DJs eclectic house evangelism.

Together they formed a loose DJing and promotion partnership, DanceHomosDance. Inspired by London's Horse Meat Disco, Andrew launched Cazzo Pazzo where big name House DJs could show off their disco knowledge in an intimate venue. Kim also got Andy to play at her notorious mixed club night, Mad Clams at The Hole.

Among the many club creatures, party people, artists and musicians Andy encountered in the downtown scene was the enigmatic figure of Antony.

Pairing the inherently happy-go-lucky sounds of disco and house with Antony's evocative, far reaching, spirited vocals adds great depth and complexity without diminishing the draw toward the dancefloor. Rarely has club music resonated with such emotionally intensity.

On album opener, Time Will, Antony's longing cry rides a sensuous electric bass riff that evokes Frankie Knuckles & Jamie Principle's peerless Your Love; on disco-fuelled lead single, Blind (now remixed by Frankie himself) and Raise Me Up his love for the apocalyptic disco of Savoy Records and the experimental synthpop of Princess Tinymeat becomes clear; and on the tribal, Quaalude-paced Easy his multi-layered voice drops several octaves to sound like a Greek Oracle, prophetic and omniscient.

Hercules' third siren (fourth if you include Andy's lead vocals on This Is My Love) is Nomi, a sultry 24-year-old native New Yorker who is usually to be found injecting urban sass into Coco Rosie's alt-folk revue and Debbie Harry's latest solo LP or singing her own neo-soul compositions over RZA-inspired minor chord loops.

Citing Mary J, Sade and Lauryn Hill as her vocal inspirations, it's hard to see where she fits into the Hercules mix, but on hearing the punchy Acid House tune You Belong, all becomes clear. Her deep, blues tone is a powerful evocation of Yazoo-era Alison Moyet.

As is so often the case in NYC's linked-in music circle, the final piece of the puzzle was the DFA connection. Blown away by what they heard they offered him a deal and Murphy's LCD Soundsystem partner Tim Goldsworthy swiftly volunteered himself for co-production duties to give a sprinkling of magic LCD dust.

Hercules And Love Affair will touch you in a way no other record will do in 2008. It encapsulates the high and lows of modern life, references the past but lays a blueprint for what's to come and above all makes your heart beat faster while your soul soars higher. Hercules & Love Affair are the coolest kids on the block; the future beamed straight to your turntable direct from New York City.