Do you remember four years ago when pop music was going to change forever? How, thanks to two blonde teenagers from Surrey—one called Guy, the other literally called Howard—dance music and pop music were going to coalesce in ways hitherto unimagined? It was time, so we were told, for a dizzying new blend of UK garage, deep house, and R&B that was set to revolutionize the mainstream. Not since the days of bloghouse had electronic music's grip on the popular imagination seemed so certain.
First came "Latch," an early top ten single for the duo, followed by Settle, their ultimately Grammy- and Brit-nominated number one debut album. Next was sure to be world domination. "When a Fire Starts to Burn," soundtracking hundreds of thousands of teenage girls applying pre-festival bindis in unison. Lads from Coventry to Carlisle splurging their savings on Huaraches, while the crystalline groove of "White Noise" slinked to-and-fro in the background. "Disclosuremania is clearly about to sweep the nation," concluded Eve Barlow in the NME. "Not since the big beat explosion of the late 90s, when Fatboy Slim and the Chemical Brothers became household names, has British dance boomed quite so loudly," said The Guardian.
These two mild-mannered lads were about to become Reigate's answer to Daft Punk.
Yet here we are some four years later, and it's difficult to see what—if anything—actually happened. "Disclosuremania," and the rebirth of deep house as pop music never really became more than a few more electronic drum kits on the Reading lineup, and a sharp increase in bikini-obsessed Youtube channels. Now, with Disclosure announcing a hiatus to enjoy some "much-needed rest," it doesn't seem unreasonable to ask: was that it?
Read more on Noisey
Advertisement