FM radio ruins everything. Unfortunately, it's been this way for a while now, even in this age of streaming services and iProduct car adaptors — a fact which is near frightening. The most recent casualty is electronic music. When radio stars repurpose certain techniques (womps, wobbles, and drops included) for the sake of producing tween singalongs, it sours many on the prospect of pop and EDM ever coexisting. And rightfully so. These efforts are often transparent, shallow, and calculated with clear cash-grubbing intentions.
Guy and Howard Lawrence seem to exist as the inverse of this equation. Rather than knowing absolutely fuck-all regarding electronic production, the young brotherly pairing d/b/a Disclosure are actual electronic producers. And instead of bludgeoning us with the most garish piss-take this side of Diplo remixing Psy, they opt to build off the sultry bounce of UK garage and 2-step — genres perfected on that namesake isle the duo also call home — injecting a dosage of pop sensibility after the fact.
Take "Latch," for example. The first single from their forthcoming debut LP possesses as much propulsion as any Top 100 fodder while still remaining coyly catchy thanks to a vocal contribution from Sam Smith. And their remix work is as delectable — namely their send-up of starlet Jessie Ware's "Running," besting the original while double-timing the proceedings.
Having already achieved chart success back across the pond — "Latch" climbed as high as 11 on the UK Singles Chart — they seem poised for a similar fate here, though Howard is pensive about the prospect. "We have no idea, we have only been over to the US for about two weeks," he wrote in an email exchange while prepping for their first full-blown Stateside tour. "We had an amazing response at every show we played there, but who knows? We listen to a lot of American artists, new and old — maybe they'll listen to us some time too."
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DISCLOSURE + ARNOLD (M.O.D.) :: The Sinclair, 52 Church St, Cambridge :: March 18 :: 7pm :: 18+ :: SOLD OUT :: 617.547.5200 or boweryboston.com
