Tracks

Disclosure: "Blue You"

(2011)

By P.M. Goerner | 7 September 2011

Every once in awhile something pops up that reminds me the right kind of streamlining is irresistible. Some songs have a way of not belying anything about their creations, sounding like one voice instead of a convenient multitude of layers, the result of a combination of mindful production and melodic prowess, and it’s often that a failure to achieve this effect can produce something flimsy and forgettable. “Blue You” is the successful face of that kind of musical Voltron, reveling in the hypnotically illusive whole-is-greater-than-the-sum effect that gives really great dance music the ability to get asses shaking in the most unselfconscious fashion. Sometimes the pieces of a puzzle come together to make such a perfectly agreeable image that the whole remembered activity of building it becomes unimportant, the finality so sensational that to remind oneself of the process proves only to distract from the enjoyment of that thing. You won’t be able to think very hard if you’re dancing to this, and it’s a pretty safe assumption that you will. Dance, that is. Not think.

“Blue You” certainly is one of those songs, so single-ready I’m almost afraid for it, and the rest of Disclosure’s free EP (available with a “Like” of their Facebook page) similarly, repeatedly abuses the part of the brain that can’t help but fall under the glossy spell of a lovely tune, lobotomizing the mush before unapologetically leaving the subject slack-jawed after a seemingly scant four minutes. Its builds and cadences come off not as predictable, let alone unusual, but as instinctual and lovingly indulgent, the whole thing mathematically darting at the speed of light and zipping off into the cosmos before you realize you spilled your whole beer, and you still don’t care because spilling all of your beer was a fitting homage to this, your jam.

Pushing danceability to the forefront with easy-to-digest but still very-hard-hitting beats, and still finding room for a House-like sense of rhythmic single-mindedness amidst the signature Funky clicks and masterful R&B pitch-slicing, UK brothers-in-arms Disclosure are absolutely on it. “Blue You” follows the trajectory charted by Joy Orbison and the UK Funky movement for the past couple of years while still managing to look well beyond the most convenient here-and-now with a really dense, warm palette (dare I say: “happy”) and a virtuosic sense of the kind of rhythms that just feel good without worrying about pushing expectation. Some of the curmudgeonly headphone types may find it a little too “happy,” instinctively suspect of something that so easily betrays the amount of attention that must have gone into it, but when it comes to my subconscious sweet tooth, this really wins out. Recommended for curing any acute bouts of dancefloor disillusionment ASAP; your kitchen floor will do nicely.