On “My High” Disclosure are banging hard again at last!

The beatmaking Brit brothers deliver a dancefloor bomb with the help of two of the most exciting rappers on both sides of the Atlantic

When the Lawrence brothers broke through in 2012 with their 21st century take on late 20th century club music, it was fresh, intelligent, and–looking at the current soundscape–years ahead of its time. Their commercial highpoint might have been launching Sam Smith’s career, but our favourite was their debut album’s most banging piece, indeed one of the best dance tracks of this century.

Disclosure weren’t very productive in the 2010’s, and unfortunately not very inventive either. One track from two years ago was a nice return to form, but still left us unsatiated.

So imagine our delight when the first deep bass and thudding beats of “My High” hit us, then Aminé started dropping his bars, bringing back a thrill that we hadn’t experienced not only since Disclosure’s finest hour, but even further back to one of the best rap tracks of the past twenty years. It is actually the first time that any of their tracks has had a rapper feature (their excuse: they didn’t know any rappers because none live in Reigate, Surrey).

But it gets even better. To really spice things up, Disclosure have added a no-longer-so-secret ingredient: a showing from Slowthai! It worked on last year’s best song, and on a highlight of the Gorillaz latest album. (Both Disclosure and Gorillaz have also invited the wonderful Fatoumata Diawara to add special flavour to their latest records, although to be fair Disclosure had already done it first). Anyway, as soon as Slowthai spits his bars the song rises up to a higher, naughtier, more fun place.

The absolutely mental accompanying video might well be, as some have commented, a perfect summation of 2020 in four minutes, or a spot-on depiction of the US health system; no matter how you interpret it, it is a fitting side-dish that rounds out the meal nicely. The whole thing is a perfect hedonistic escape from this benighted year, and undoubtedly a keeper for many years to come.