Six Degrees of Disclosure’s Settle
It used to be easier to pretend that an album was its own perfectly self-contained artifact. The great records certainly feel that way. But albums are more permeable than solid, their motivations, executions and inspirations informed by, and often stolen from, their peers and forbearers. It all sounds awfully formal, but it's not. It's the very nature of music — of art, even. The Six Degrees features examine the relationships between classic records and five other albums we've deemed related in some way. In some cases these connections are obvious, in others they are tenuous. But, most important to you, all of the records are highly, highly recommended.
The Album
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"Change is inevitable." So goes a sample of Eric Thomas, the self-proclaimed "Hip-Hop Preacher" that opens Settle, the debut full-length from Surrey-based brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence, better known as Disclosure. When it's finished, the brothers loop another Thomas sample — in this one, he's talking about the moment "when a fire starts to burn" — and turn it into a banging house track as hot as the summer ahead. Where UK... dance culture —from grime to garage, 2-step to dubstep— for years has been obsessed with the notion of "pushing things forward," what startles about Disclosure's assured first album is not its innovation, but rather its refinement.
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Instead of anticipating the future, the brothers take the present moment of UK pop and wed it to the early-'90s heyday of American vocal house. With help from the likes of Jessie Ware and Ellie Goulding, as well as newcomers like Sam Smith and London Grammar, the brothers unveil their vision of a 21st-century pop record, with a revolving cast of stellar vocalists. Smith sings of an obsessive new love on "Latch"; Howard handles vocal duties for the lovesick "F For You," and closer "Help Me Lose My Mind," featuring relative newcomer Hannah Reid of London Grammar, is an outright stunner. Despite the crowded guest roster, Disclosure have avoided making sodden Calvin Harris/ David Guetta A-list guest parade. Instead they've crafted a thrilling amalgam of a dance record that will define 2013, even as it lovingly re-contextualizes what's come before. Change may be inevitable, but the past is always ripe for rediscovery.
The Jersey House Brothers
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Though they were signed to a major label in 1988, it was only when twin brothers Ronald and Rheji Burrell were unceremoniously dropped that their careers as Jersey house-masters really took off. Holed up in their mother's basement, the two teens crafted a coarse-yet-crackling take on the primitive electro, boogie and house music that was seeping out of clubs at the time. Their string of singles compiled here as The Nu-Groove Years... (1988-92) bridged the gap between the shuttering of New York's Paradise Garage and the early-'90s rise of the Limelight. And while Disclosure's success stems from the Lawrence Brothers producing together, the Burrells rarely recorded together. Nevertheless, tracks like "I'll Say a Prayer 4 U" and "Apt 2A" and "Apt 1B" epitomized how the Burrells housed things.
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The Vocal House Masters
The French House-Pop Connection
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House music students Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo paid homage to the likes of American producers DJ Boo, Green Velvet and Jeff Mills on "Teachers" from their 1997 debut, Homework. For their encore, they went one better, collaborating with the likes of underground vocalists-producers in Todd Edwards and Romanthony for 2001's Discovery, which laid out the blueprints for how house music could become the template for pop music in the new... century. Starting from a disco heavy base (sampling from the likes of Sister Sledge, Cerrone and even Barry Manilow), the Frenchmen pounded these snippets into mesmeric vocal house tracks that could be ecstatic, pulsing and cheesy all at once. And while the duo has since abandoned its own template, Discovery's example was later picked up by the likes of Justice, Will.i.am, David Guetta and Disclosure.
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The Scottish Brotherhood
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Given the intense scrutiny by cultish fans that surrounds the Edinburgh-based duo Boards of Canada, it was funny that only on their third album did it become public knowledge that Marcus Eoin and Mike Sandison were, in fact, brothers. And while their previous albums worked the downtempo end of electronic music, The Campfire Headphase introduced a few new wrinkles to their sonic template. After emphasizing vintage keyboard tones on previous albums, the... brothers Sandison this time deployed processed guitars, their twang and jangle twisted into strange new textures. And since their music always felt both bucolic and wistful, it was fitting to have the latent British folk aspects rise to the fore. Throughout, their sibling telepathy made for some evocative music.
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