Apple Music Festival, Disclosure review

The dance duo still look disarmingly young to be so central to current pop, but still just about managed to raise the roof, says David Smyth
Refined: Disclosure's sound is moving away from Nineties-influenced vocal house
John Phillips/Getty Images
David Smyth28 September 2015

The Lawrence brothers of Disclosure had a major Friday. On the same day that the new Bond theme that they produced was revealed, the dance duo released their second album and played this concert broadcast around the world by Apple.

Howard, on bass guitar and occasionally singing, and Guy, mostly on drum pads, still look disarmingly young to be so central to current pop. The fact that so much other music now resembles their refined, Nineties-influenced vocal house, has forced them to move away from it on Caracal. The results are mixed, and haven’t yet produced a real hit single, though the hypnotic throb of Nocturnal, sung by the current biggest thing in R&B, The Weeknd, sounded magnificent as a wraparound light show blazed.

The singer wasn’t present, and nor were the other big stars from the new material: Lorde, Miguel, Gregory Porter and close collaborator Sam Smith, represented by a familiar pink outline on screen. Kwabs was there and was presented strikingly on a raised platform, but his sluggish song was forgettable.

A necessary zap of higher energy came with a central mix of Bang That and When a Fire Starts to Burn. Simpler sounds, but all that was needed to raise the roof.

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