From their creative laboratory, Disclosure issues Alchemy, their fourth album which had remained a secret until recent days.
Despite the title’s allure of precious metal, Alchemy is also something of a reset. There are no guest features, no samples, it’s independently released and Disclosure “don’t intend to tour it straight away,” reads a statement.
What is does have is energy and bangers, including the previously-released lead track “Looking For Love,” and the kind of no-nonsense floor-stomping house numbers that are big part of Disclosure’s armoury.
But wait, there’s more. Album track “Higher Than Ever Before” is an atmosphere drum ‘n’ bass dynamo, “Sun Showers” a throwback trance gem, and “Talk On the Phone” is a perfectly-produced pop song.
Comprised of brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence, Disclosure is a heavyweight pair in the electronic music scene. In their homeland, two of their three albums have led the national survey — 2013’s Settle and 2015’s Caracal. Alchemy is the followup to 2020’s Energy, which peaked at No. 4 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart.
Released through the act’s own label Apollo Records, Alchemy is “a celebration of us feeling liberated right now,” explains Guy. “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.”
The LP was reportedly written when the pair were at different stages in their lives, Guy, recently married and settling down in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, while Howard “was reeling from heartbreak and exhausted from a 150-date tour,” reads a statement accompanying the release.
Its creation was a type of alchemy. “There was this combination of deep heartbreak and sadness, but also deep admiration and appreciation,” Howard recounts. “Let’s turn this horrible feeling into something beautiful. The whole idea was to channel pain into beauty—which, in hindsight, is always the aim.”
Stream Alchemy below.
