Is Disclosure's New Video Based on a Weird Christian Meme?

So there's this band called Disclosure. Maybe you've heard of them. They're two disgustingly young British sibs who've been crowned the next big fat hairy deal in dance music. This is sort of because they're cute and wear nice things, but also because they've managed to release a string of hook-heavy hits like "White Noise" and "You & Me."

This is the kind of dance music some yuppie might Shazam at his gym, and throw immediatly onto his jogging playlist. It's also the kind of music that's so impeccably and expertly put together that electronic music snobs (like me) can't lump it into the trash heap of throwaway pop and electro.

Disclosure's big, hot, throbbing debut album Settle comes out today. Last Friday, the two guys—one of whom is actually named Guy—released a track called "When A Fire Starts To Burn," in conjunction with our orb-dancing sister site THUMP. It's quite the earworm. If you haven't heard it, its up there, and you'll love it. You'll probably hear it a million times this summer and grow to hate it. But then you'll very slowly learn to love it again.

Before that inevitable hype cycle runs its course, this will also happen: you'll find yourself grinding on a fellow human to this song on some humid dance floor. And then you'll tell that human that this Disclosure track is actually based on a meme. And not just any meme. An old (like, circa 2010) insider-y joke between UK bass music fans where the frenetic beats of a drum and bass song are superimposed over images of ecstatic church-goers. You can even call it "culture jamming" if you want to sound smart.

This stuff is called "Baptazia." Here's what I'm talking about:

And here's a step-by-step breakdown of how Disclosure's video for "When A Fire Starts To Burn" used an old internet joke to preach the "gospel" of house music.

IT STARTS OFF WITH A CHRISTIAN MINISTER

In the introduction, you'll notice a minister walk in front of his congregation and start preaching about how "change is inevitable" (a possible retort to Disclosure's naysayers who've blamed them for house music's downfall).

That minister is a barely-disguised substitute for an MC, that guy who prances around the stage, keeping the energy of a show at a constant pee-in-your-pants level—by rapping over the DJ's beats, or just screaming about how great everything is.

THE MINISTER'S VOICE BECOMES A PART OF THE BEAT

The minister's refrain of "When the fire starts to burn…" builds into the bouncy, four-on-the-floor house beat that drives the Disclosure track. Similarly, the Baptazia meme videos also feature some kind of hyper-energetic Christian minister. Usually, the voice of an MC is perfectly subbed over the minister—so that it looks like he's rapping, like here:

Although sometimes, the minister's own voice and movements are so kooky, they don't even need to be replaced, like here:

PEOPLE ARE ECSTATICALLY WIGGING OUT

As soon as the Disclosure track's beat kicks in, the people in the congregation start popping up and down with their hands in the air while rolling their eyes back, dancing like their fourth dose of MDMA just kicked in.

The director of this video even slows down the seizure-like dancing to make it look weirder. This awkwardness is at the heart of every Baptazia video. In fact, it's part of every "How You Dance To Dubstep" video—an umbrella meme that shows all sorts of funny-looking creatures—like parrots, dogs, Charlie Sheen—wobbling to bass music.

IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT ECSTASY

So yeah, Disclosure is obviously appropriating from the Baptazia meme as a way to poke fun at the fervor of drugged-out club kids who see God on the dance floor. And giving a shout-out to the group of UK dubstep/drum and bass fans who'll recognize the joke.

I don't think that's all of it. I'm inclined to believe that Disclosure wanted this song to be an anthem—or a type of propaganda, maybe—about the inevitable spread of electronic music all over the world. Our increasingly conjoined relationship with technology also means we need music that transcends both language and cultural boundaries, and that search has landed on instantly catchy dance floor classics that appeal as much to a Chinese raver as they do to a Siberian model or something. You get the point. When a fire starts to burn, and it starts to spread…

@MichelleLHOOQ