Last Night We Saw Disclosure Launch 'Caracal' With a Huge New Live Show | US | Translation

Say what you want about Disclosure, but they don't half get around. Their debut album, Settle, is easily one of the most ubiquitous albums of the decade – combining the worlds of pop and dance music in a way not seen since the days of UK Garage and filter house. Essentially, Disclosure are the bastard children of the Artful Dodger and Stardust repackaged for a Twitter generation, and that's nowhere near as much of an insult as it sounds.

Through number one albums, worldwide top ten singles and bags of critical acclaim, Disclosure have earned themselves legions of fans from around the world, and by the looks of things, half of them had found themselves at east London's Troxy for the launch of their second album, Caracal.

The album itself is a departure of sorts from their debut, taking advantage of their now-established superstardom to rope in pretty much the whole of pop music's elite, with Lorde, Sam Smith, Miguel and Toronto's sadboy answer to Sonic The Hedgehog, The Weeknd, all appearing. I guess the first thing to say is that each and every one of the album's already established guests were absent from the evening, so if you were hoping hear how Sam Smith wept his way through "Omen" but "still fkn smashed it m8", then I'm sorry to disappoint you. That being said, the boys didn't really leave much time to consider the absence of these behemoths to be honest. Disclosure showcased the album's poppier direction in the form of appearances from newer artists; Nao's "Superego" performance felt like she was sitting me down to tell me to pull my head out my arse (something I could probably do with), while Jillian from Lion Babe sounded like Gala 2k15, which I don't think anyone can be mad at.

When Disclosure weren't flexing their pop muscles, they had enough in the bag to make sure they didn't completely ignore their electronic roots. "When a Fire Starts To Burn" went down a treat, while the first taste of Caracal proper, "Bang That" fucking KNOCKED live.

Visually, the lads have stepped it up a few notches too. Disclosure's huge LED screen, filled with constantly moving geometrics, worked perfectly but will most likely prove even more enticing to 100,000 Americans in Madison Square Garden. It's clear they've thought about their own interaction too. During the outro of The Weeknd featuring "Nocturnal" (which is fucking HUGE btw), they meet in the middle of the stage to play guitar together, forming a sort of EDM Guns 'N' Roses — which isn't anywhere near as sickening as I've made it sound.

The time on the road touring the hell out of Settle has clearly stood Disclosure in good stead. They are, by now, multi platinum selling artists, backed by a major label and a well oiled live machine. Whether they expected it or not, kudos to the Lawrence Brothers for accepting their mainstream ties and embracing their love of pop on Caracal. It seems Disclosure 2.0 is saccharine R&B without being sickly, and I'm totally down with that. If this prototype show is anything to go by, Caracal's tour cycle could be much bigger and better than the first.

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