Disclosure – Alchemy review

Life in the music industry is a precarious one in the twenties, and to paraphrase the venerated British character actor Vinnie Jones this can occasionally compel; making these decisions as he wisely once said takes balls, and there are different types of balls. To hear the rest, go watch the movie.

As Disclosure Howard and Guy Lawrence have over the course of the last decade become successful artists, producers and remixers, and to quote another seminal Hollywood actor, with their 2020 released, UK top 5, double Grammy nominated last album Energy, they’d reached the top…and they had to stop.

The period of hiatus since has it would seem found them both creatively refreshed and far from idle. Giving less than twenty-four hours’ notice, a statement from the brothers announced the upcoming release of their fourth album Alchemy, on which they’d proudly gone completely DIY. In turbulent times, it constituted a radical, ambitious step.

Details in advance were scant, a brief communique from Guy explaining: “This record is a celebration of us feeling liberated right now…we’re no longer signed to a major record label. We’re not going to tour this record. We can do whatever we like and be super creative.” With so little to go on by way of context, it seemed clear that any intent was for the music to do the talking.

In which case, how much has changed? Well, Energy‘s sprawl – almost 80 minutes – is dramatically tapered, with the eleven tracks here clocking in at well under half that time. None also of the roll call of guest vocalists, from Mick Jenkins to Common, made it back for an encore, with the duo also this time rejecting the idea of using samples.

At the time of writing Howard was in the process of recovering from a broken relationship, referred to (Perhaps) in song titles such as Looking for Love and We Were in Love; the former is sugary, lightweight house a la The Weeknd at his most outward looking, the latter a more expansive, back room ready trip.

Surprisingly the pair resist any temptation to move through the gears in a way you’d expect for people who’d spent mucho time behind the decks. The liquid breaks of Higher Than Ever Before are the first real jump to another dimension, whilst the twisted disco of Go the Distance tells its disciples to “fuck resistance” to its sub-bass rumble.

The futility of any resistance is in the ear of the beholder. Purify is a brief tribal encounter, closer Talk on The Phone sounds like it’s been retrieved from a Daft Punk do Stranger Things side project, whilst the funky swing of Brown Eyes is absolutely Balearic-primed, even if it’s too hot to dance there any more. The peak though comes via Sun Showers, a cloud-topping bullet of wispy trance flowing round a single ecstatic chord, the sound like a rocket trying to escape gravity.

Given the lack of preamble there will be a few questions around Alchemy, the most interesting one being whether it’s meant as an album or a mixtape. The answer is it feels like it’s somewhere in between, but then when that’s all out of the way it should be remembered that leaving the vice like hug of the establishment takes balls, as also does making something truly all your own.