Words: Gareth O’Malley

Dubstep. It’s always been something I’ve ‘appreciated’, but have never fully been able to get into. The genre can be quite hit-and-miss, and more often than not it’s light on melody whilst being heavy on atmospherics, which isn’t exactly the kind of thing I like.

Disclosure’s debut single isn’t going to provide the epiphany I’ve been looking for. A lot more needs to be done before anything like that can happen. For instance, Mount Kimbie’s ‘Crooks and Lovers’ album is at the very least dubstep-influenced, and that’s been the only thing to impress me from this field so far in 2010.

However, I can certainly appreciate the intricacy of these two tracks. ‘Offline Dexterity’ is a fine example of layering, with new elements being thrown into the mix almost constantly. It never becomes too busy, however: the focus is mainly on the skittering beat and the keyboard motif. It’s a pleasant surprise to hear the track take a glitchy detour around the two-and-a-half minute mark and become swamped by reverb-laden vocals, but this does nothing to take away from the effect generated when the main rhythm and keyboards return, this time accompanied by swirling distortion, which is a subtle addition that adds quite a great deal to the make-up of these skeletal five minutes.

‘Street Light Chronicle’, meanwhile, is perhaps the more dancefloor-ready of the two, with the drums even more powerful this time around, joined by short vocal snippets, a swelling organ and some muddy synths. It’s certainly the more melodic of the pair, which isn’t exactly saying much, but it points to a side of Disclosure I’d certainly like to hear more of. Time will tell where this duo (teenagers Guy and Howard Laurence) go, but, all things considered, this is more than just a good start.