Album Review: Disclosure - Settle

With a level of talent and confidence all but eclipsing their youthful ages, British sibling duo Disclosure have fast become one of the hottest names in dance music. Aged 19 and 22 respectively, Howard and Guy Lawrence have crafted a frighteningly assured debut, taking UK garage, 2-step and R&B elements from the '90s – music made when the boys were still in Pampers – and twisting it into a string of heady house hits that can only be described as 'the sound of now'.

When A Fire Starts To Burn is an utter storming opener, cutting a vocal loop in and out of stuttering percussion and futuristic synths to create some kind of stomping sermon made for the dancefloor congregation. Latch follows instantly after, and it again makes things crystal clear – these lads know how to respectfully handle a hook without turning it into mainstream cheese. What this massive single also highlights is that nothing on Settle is rudimentary; even the fundamentals are flipped upside down by the brothers Lawrence to create a sound that's uniquely their own.

With a commitment to the high-end instrumentation – cymbal snaps, raindrop keyboard lines, sexy vocal turns (Jessie Ware, Jamie Woon and London Grammar all feature) – Disclosure make sure the treble drives these songs as much as the bass. And when it all works together, on songs like White Noise and Confess To Me, it instantly knocks you out.

Not only stand-up tracks individually, Settle also works fantastically as an album, the collection of songs delivered here showing that electronic dance music doesn't have to remain pedestrian and predictable. Beam this shit out to the far reaches; it's next level stuff.