If you've been to any self-respecting nightclub recently, A) you were probably in Europe, and B) you likely heard "Blind," the revelatory track by left-field-dance revivalists Hercules & Love Affair. The song, driven by a climactic build-up of horns, syncopated beats, and Antony Hegarty's (of Antony and the Johnsons fame) unearthly vocals, cement the group as torchbearers to New York City's forgotten age of disco.

We're not talking the Studio 54 years, though. New York-based Hercules & Love Affair's sound harkens back to an era of risk-taking dance pioneers like Arthur Russell and Larry Levan—a time when disco was both weird and dangerous. "The disco that I think is interesting is the idea that it came from a gay, black, and Latino scene, which is about as punk as it fucking gets," explains LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy, whose label DFA (along with EMI and Mute) releases Hercules' music.

Years in the making, Hercules & Love Affair is the project of Andrew Butler, a 29-year-old DJ and producer with a steeped understanding of dance music's history. For his self-tiled debut album, Butler built propulsive electro tracks—full of languid basslines and thumping beats—and recruited singers Nomi Ruiz, Kim Ann Foxman, and Antony to add their own distinct vocal touches. The results are astonishing.

Antony's songs ("Blind" and "Time Will" are two standouts), in particular, are ground-breaking, introducing an emotive intensity to a genre usually known only for its ability to move tightly bound butts. But Hercules does that, too. Mixed in with the album's new-disco material are excellent songs like "You Belong," which incorporate elements of Chicago House and Detroit Techno to make certain a wide array of crowds will move.

And that's what makes this record so attractive: There's a little something for everyone. Finicky electro enthusiasts can drool over its tasteful references to the '70s, and club kids can pay it no mind and dance through the night. For the rest of us, it's a buoyant soundtrack and a history lesson for a part of music that is largely ignored. In our opinion, Hercules & Love Affair is easily the dance record of the year, and certainly one of the year's best all-around albums.