British electronic music duo Disclosure consists of brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence. Hailing from Surrey, England, their first two albums, Settle (2013) and Caracal (2015), were both nominated for Best Dance/Electronica Album Grammy awards. After a five year break between albums the brothers return with Energy, their third album in seven years.
Featuring numerous guest vocalists and hip hop artists, only three of Energy’s 11 tracks find the duo performing unaccompanied by the likes of Amine, Blick Bassy, Channel Tres, Common, Fatoumata Diawara, Kehlani, Kelis, Mick Jenkins, slowthai and Syd.
For the most part Energy’s 43 minutes of music find Disclosure bouncing along to a strict high energy EDM beat indebted to Giorgio Moroder’s click track. With influences ranging from Chicago house to Detroit techno, UK garage and 2-step garage, Disclosure only slow things down for two interludes and the final two tracks, Birthday and Reverie featuring Kehlani & Syd and Common respectively.
In describing the album the brothers Lawrence said:
“The thing that decided which songs made it and which songs didn’t was that one word: energy. It’s called Energy, but not just because it’s very upbeat and positive, it’s because of the way the songs were formulated. The word energy for us has much more to do with the energy in the room.”
Regarding the collaborative process behind the music on Energy, Howard went on to say:
“Our favorite way of working is we turn up with nothing and they turn up with nothing and we all make something from scratch at the same time. That way, we’re all on the same page vibe-wise. If me and Guy come and sit down and Guy starts making a beat, I start playing some chords and writing the melodies with the person, it instantly allows us all to sync up.”
Something from nothing is the method at work on Energy. Disclosure’s shortest album to date, Energy proves the point that in some cases less is in fact more.
7.5/10
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