Disclosure and The Magician

It’s been quite the year or so for Disclosure; the Surrey-born brothers, Guy and Howard Lawrence, have enjoyed major critical and commercial success with their debut record, Settle, an intriguing blend of garage and deep house that had enough of a pop sensibility to make them a firm fixture on UK radio. I’d say it’s hard to believe they’re so young - twenty-three and twenty, respectively - although that’d probably be disingenuous of me, given that they both look about twelve. Among their many live highlights of the past year or so - and there’s been plenty of them, given that they’ve toured prodigiously and played high-profile sets at the likes of Glastonbury and Coachella - came at the Parklife Weekender in Manchester, where they curated and headlined a huge outdoor stage on the Sunday. Despite the fact that they were effectively topping the bill on the second stage, the crowd voted with their feet, and the verdict was clear; Foals played what was ostensibly the festival’s headline set to a sparse main stage audience, whilst Disclosure played to vast valley of people, with many amongst them trying, and failing, to take up the high ground on the hill as the trough below swarmed with fans. To put it bluntly, they’ve got the world at their feet; their followers will be hoping that whatever they do next can be translated to the stage with as much energy as Settle.

Stephen Fasano, alias: The Magician. He gets the nickname because he trolls for new music all the time and turns any song into a dance song. It sounds like it doesn’t take much talent, however, he possess the nickname for good reason. Having remixed songs like Clean Bandit’s “Rather Be” and Lykke Li’s “I Follow Rivers,” he has also taken the time and effort to produce his own originals, which are the BEST songs to dance to.

Watching his live set really is like watching a magician do his tricks. Dressed in a suit and bow tie, the lights shine brightly on him and his table on the stage. For the better part of his live sets, most of the time it’s too dark to really see him, but the rare occasions you get a glimpse, you can see how much he loves being up on that stage with his equipment. Otherwise you are completely subjected to one of the best, giant dance parties you could possibly ever find yourself in. His set includes all of his best remixes, as well as his originals. You can also see glimpses of him having the time of his life as well, dancing along as if no one is watching.