Hercules and Love Affair – Hercules and Love Affair HALA is arty New Yorker Andy Butler and friends, who have gathered to produce this intriguing debut, a slice of nu-disco that s supposedly so cool some of the tunes just regard the dancefloor indifferen

Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair

HALA is arty New Yorker Andy Butler and friends, who have gathered to produce this intriguing debut, a slice of nu-disco that's supposedly so cool some of the tunes just regard the dancefloor indifferently from a distance.

Well, with Antony on board (of Mercury-Prize-winning '& The Johnsons' fame), you should be primed to expect the unexpected.

Here Antony shares vocal duties, his wobbly oddness making a pleasing companion to blunted melodic beats on recent single Blind, and the effortlessly cool Raise Me Up too.

There's '70s soul driving Hercules Theme, but HALA's journey through the emotions also stops off at morose and downbeat along the way. Interesting stuff. ***

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

MGMT are a pair of Brooklyn-based guys clearly picked up because of the renaissance in brash, bold and pouting chart-bound disco in recent years.

At times sounding like a band high on an intoxicating double-shot of Queen's performance pop and Scissor Sisters' dancefloor nous, their bizarrely-titled debut kicks about the place with a wide-eyed, playful sonic feel.

There's plenty of mid-tempo disco campness here, which even sticks around as the set slides into a Bowie-influenced, psychedelic guitar-led second half.

Bubbling, bleeping keys make several appearances, but nothing is quite as unashamedly, joyfully alt-pop as lead single Time To Pretend. A pleasing scattershot of styles, beats and feels. ***