Let’s be clear: I agree with a lot of what Son Raw said when he eviscerated Disclosure a few months back. There is something bland and rehashed about them, especially when contextualized against their now-massive popularity. They also are the sort of “blokes” who would take a press photo such as the one above. If you hate them off G.P, you’re not only excused, your points are salient. But there is something to their rise that goes beyond a basic gift of appropriation. That’s there too, but they’re sort of like the A$AP Rocky of beat music. They’re barely doing much more than re-organizing old styles, but there’s something effortless and fun to it. It’s summer music and has an anti-intellectual safe-as-milk streak that rankles serious music critics. Conversely, milk is delicious and summer is a fun time. Disclosure would be a guilty pleasure if such a thing existed. Instead I’ll just say that I enjoy them when they’re on and I probably prefer them to whatever skronky white trap dork is the de facto alternative.
Last night, I procured a downloadable link to their BBC Essential mix. It doesn’t exactly break ground, but provides you with a very enjoyable two hours. I have trouble hating on guys who mix old house jams from 95 with Gangstarr, Slum Village and Jaylib. Even if the Gangstarr song they chose is “Put Up or Shut Up.” It’s not my favorite song, but they are one of the few still screaming out the good name of the G-U-R-U, so they get a pass for everything but that photo above, where I just will assume that one of the Disclosures mistakenly assumed he was placing tinsel at the top of a Christmas tree.
