Disclosure (band)

Early life

Born to professional musician parents, their father played in rock bands, including 'No Angry Man' and 'The Look Book' alongside his brother and Guy's godfather, and is now a professional auctioneer, whilst their mother, a session musician, fronted bands, toured on cruises, sang advert jingles, and was one of the first performers to entertain the British Army after their recapture of the Falkland Islands. Guy started playing the drums at the age of three, and Howard started playing the bass at the age of eight. Both also learned to play the guitar and the piano and Howard to sing.

They both attended the Reigate College. During this period, the boys studied music and music technology. By the age of 15, Howard listened mainly to funk, soul and maudlin singers, whilst Guy listened predominantly to hip hop, dubstep and was the drummer in an indie-style guitar band with school friends.

Career

Whilst Guy was attending at the Reigate College, he enjoyed studying classical music, especially the likes of Bach and Claude Debussy. A teenage interest in the music and production techniques of Detroit-based rapper and record producer J Dilla, led him through hip hop to attending dubstep gigs as a student; but he enjoyed house music more as a creation, and began studying it and introducing his brother to it. Studying and being primarily influenced by artists including Joy Orbison, James Blake, Burial and Mount Kimbie, they began studying their influences, leading them back in time to Chicago house, Detroit techno, UK garage and 2-step garage.

2010–11: Debut

The brothers started de-constructing and copying the music that Guy had heard at gigs in a room above their father's auction house, and then making music in the same room in a style they refer to as "electronic house music with a pop structure", uploading it to Myspace. This got them an early record deal, and a UK tour mixing live music gigs with occasional DJ sets, where in Manchester they played a set before Todd Edwards, and gained after gig all-night conversation.

The duo's first single "Offline Dexterity" was released on 29 August 2010. They signed to the new PMR record label on its formation in January 2011, and released their second single "Carnival"/"I Love...That You Know" on 13 June 2011. This got them a management deal with Sam Evitt and Jack Street's Method Management who they are still managed by.

2012–14: Commercial success and Settle

Disclosure picked up their first significant national radio support upon the release of the "Tenderly" / "Flow" single in January 2012. The single led to significant interest in the subsequent June 2012 EP The Face, released on Greco-Roman. The EP included the popular remix of "Running" by Jessie Ware a fellow PMR artist which charted in both the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as becoming a fixture of the 2012 Festival Circuit and featuring on the annual edition of Annie Mac presents.

Through collaboration with other artists signed to Method Management, the group had their first UK hit in October 2012 with "Latch", co-written with Jimmy Napes and featuring the vocals from Sam Smith, which peaked at number 11 in the UK Singles Chart.

The group maintained their momentum into 2013 – they were voted into the BBC Radio 1xtra 'Hot Ten For 2013' and scored two consecutive top 10 hit singles in "White Noise" (number two) (with AlunaGeorge) and "You & Me" (number 10) (with Eliza Doolittle). These three singles were collected on an EP, The Singles. They released their debut studio album, Settle, by PMR Records on 3 June 2013 and was met with commercial and critical success, debuting at number one on the UK Albums Chart, charting in many countries across Europe and Australia, and receiving four stars from The Guardian and a 9.1 score on Pitchfork. They performed twice at Glastonbury Festival 2013 and appeared on Later... with Jools Holland. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Dance Album.

In 2013, Disclosure embarked on a worldwide tour of more than 40 European, American, and Canadian cities including high-profile music festivals such as the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Lollapalooza Music Festival in Chicago, and Sasquatch! Music Festival in Washington State. The same year, they established the record label Method Records; its roster includes Friend Within, Karen Harding, Lxury, and Tourist. A sub label was introduced in February 2015, called Method White, releasing more underground tracks through it. The first release was "Wolfsbane" by Jonas Rathsman. Since then M. J. Cole and Eats Everything have released tracks through the label.

2015: Caracal

Following the worldwide success of their debut studio album, Settle and a worldwide tour, the duo began working on their second studio album, Caracal, featuring vocals from Sam Smith, Lorde, Gregory Porter, Lion Babe, Kwabs, The Weeknd, Nao, Miguel, Jordan Rakei and Brendan Reilly. The week of its release, Caracal earned the group their second consecutive number one album in the UK Albums Chart.

The music videos for official singles from the album published on YouTube are interconnected and follow a story line, each newly released video furthering the plot. The videos follow a young woman in a sci-fi, dystopian world who is, for some unknown reason, being chased by the police.

Three singles were released prior to the album: "Omen", "Holding On" and "Jaded". Two promotional singles were also released: "Willing and Able" and "Hourglass". The album was released on 25 September 2015, by PMR Records and Island Records. The album was also nominated for Best Dance/Electronica Album at the 2016 Grammy Awards.

Discography