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Apr 06, 2022 By Mark Redfern

Hercules & Love Affair (the project of Andy Butler) are releasing a new album, In Amber, on June 17 via Skint/BMG. Now they have shared the album’s second single, “Poisonous Storytelling,” which features vocals from ANOHNI. The song also features Budgie of Siouxsie and the Banshees on drums. They have also shared remixes of the song by Justin K Broadrick and Giant Swan. Check out all three versions of the song below.

Butler had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘Poisonous Storytelling’ started as a song called ‘Sacral’—the music evoked sacred rites, but the word ‘Sacral’ also speaks to the one of the sources of our rootedness and stability.”

The press release says that ANOHNI’s lyrics “outline a constellation of systemic brokenness within global society. Addressing cultural narrators, newscasters, film makers and prophets.”

ANOHNI adds: “We must be careful with new narratives, because everyone is rotted out from poisonous storytelling.”

Previously Hercules & Love Affair shared the album’s first single, “Grace,” which featured vocals from Butler alongside Icelandic singer Elin Ey and was shared via a video. “Grace” was one of our Songs of the Week.

“In dance music, the focus tends to be more on celebration, joy, desire, heartbreak,” Butler said of the album in a previous press release. “But rage? Existential contemplation? Not so much…certain emotions seemed to be off limits. In some ways, In Amber is a record I didn’t know I had in me.

“As an artist that has always put my personal lived experience forward in my work, not to mention the chaos of living through these recent times, I could not in good conscience make something comfortable. I needed to express my discomfort. Making a ’90s sounding techno or house record, or an odd ’80s sounding dance track was not anything I needed to do.”

The last Hercules & Love Affair album, Omnion, came out in 2017 via Big Beat.

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