Disclosure return from hiatus with Moonlight

Universal-Island Records Ltd. released ‘Moonlight’ by Disclosure, the English duo of brothers Howard and Guy Lawrence, on 20 August, the group’s first material since they announced an indefinite hiatus at the start of 2017, three years removed from their sophomore album ‘Caracal.’ The comeback arrived without warning, following a January announcement that the brothers would step back from their WILD LIFE festival with Rudimental this summer to work on a third album. It came just months after ‘Ultimatum,’ their May collaboration with Fatoumata Diawara.

‘Moonlight’ takes its name from a 1930s big band standard credited to a since-departed composer, reshaped into an upbeat, mid-paced house cut layered with original chord work and interlocking low end. ‘Where Angels Fear To Tread,’ released the following day, marked the duo’s third single of the year and pushed toward a jazzier register; ‘Moonlight’ itself stayed closer to the pair’s familiar, funk-layered synth vocal sound.

The record also gathers ‘Love Can Be So Hard’ and ‘Funky Sensation’ — built from a doubled-over remix and featuring Gwen McCrae, folding Disclosure’s love of disco into a house arrangement — plus closer ‘Where You Come From,’ recorded across the same surprise run as the two singles named above.

The title track took shape at Guy Lawrence’s own house, sampling a cover of ‘When I Fall In Love’ by The Real Group, the Swedish a cappella group; it was built to foreground Disclosure’s own low end and chord work.