Hercules & Love Affair Return to the Dance Floor on Someone Else Is Calling
The versatile, textured new EP resonates in the heat of a crowded club and in quieter spaces
Hercules & Love Affair re-enter the club with Someone Else Is Calling, a four-track EP that feels like a recalibration of their core and roots.
Released December 2025 via StrataSonic Records, the project finds Andy Butler stepping back into dance music with renewed clarity, reconnecting with the physical and emotional charge that first defined the Hercules sound.
Following the stark introspection of In Amber, Butler’s recent move to Belgium opened up a different creative lane. Immersed in the country’s deep-rooted club history and surrounded by a younger generation of producers, his relationship to the dancefloor began to shift again. That momentum crystallized unexpectedly in Iceland while Butler was producing material for Elín Ey’s Hips & Lips project. A spontaneous decision to make club music quickly turned into something more focused. For the first time, Butler and Ey sat down with the explicit intention of writing for the dance floor.
Ey is no stranger to the Hercules universe, having appeared on previous albums, but Someone Else Is Calling captures a new dimension of their collaboration. Butler has described her as one of the purest voices he has worked with, and across the EP, that purity cuts through even the densest moments of acid and percussion.
The third axis of the project is Quinn Whalley of Paranoid London, whose co-production plays a crucial role in shaping the EP’s tone. Whalley’s approach is mischievous and detail-driven, grounding the songs in raw, tactile hardware while keeping them elastic and alive. Acid lines snarl, grooves lock in quickly and nothing overstays its welcome. Butler has spoken about falling in love with this strain of dance music at 17, buying early techno and acid records, including Whalley’s own Different Gear 12-inch. That lineage hums quietly beneath the surface of the EP.
The emotional core arrives in the final pairing of “Body and Soul” and “That’s Not How to Love,” a sequence that feels especially considered. “Body and Soul” plays like a moment of disorientation on the dance floor, where the room blurs and the body briefly loses its center. By the time “That’s Not How to Love” arrives, clarity returns. Ey’s refrain, “I don’t understand why I feel this way,” floats over a heavy, unwavering acid bassline, tender and exposed against something resolute and unyielding. It is a striking juxtaposition that captures longing and strength in the same breath.
That balance defines the EP as a whole. Someone Else Is Calling is a versatile record. It works in the heat of a crowded club, but it also holds up in quieter spaces, where texture and detail come forward and the music settles into the body more slowly. There is haze here, but also brightness.
A video for the title track is out now, filmed in Mexico City and directed by Tatsumi Milori, offering a visual companion rooted in movement, beautifully documented queer intimacy and community. It underscores themes already present in the music without overwhelming them.
Rather than chasing nostalgia, Someone Else Is Calling feels like an artist returning to something essential. Butler, Ey and Whalley meet on common ground, honoring the history of the queer dance floor while keeping their eyes firmly on the present. It is confident, tactile and emotionally open, a reminder of how powerful club music can be when tenderness and force coexist, even when you find yourself crying in the club.
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