Disclosure are the act I use to explain to younger DJs in Seoul what UK garage actually was, because Settle did the job a hundred documentaries could not. It took a specifically British rhythm, gave it proper songs, and made it legible to people who had never been near a pirate radio broadcast.
Guy and Howard Lawrence were absurdly young when they did it. That is the part I find hardest to get past, and the part that makes what happened to them later worth taking seriously.
Settle Was a Translation, Not a Revival
Settle came out in 2013 into a market that had decided dance music meant a festival drop. It did the opposite. The drums were two step, the space between the sounds was the point, and every track was built around a vocalist who was given room to actually sing: Sam Smith on Latch, AlunaGeorge on White Noise, Eliza Doolittle on You and Me.
Revival is the wrong word for what they did. A revival repeats a sound. Disclosure took the rhythmic language of late nineties garage and used it to write pop songs, which is why the record travelled to places that had no relationship with that music at all. Korea was one of them.
The Vocal Chop Is a Craft Decision, Not a Trick
Their signature move, the chopped and stuttered vocal used as a rhythmic part, has been copied so thoroughly that it now reads as generic. It was not generic in 2012. The reason theirs worked is that they chopped performances rather than syllables. You can still hear the singer in the fragment, so the hook keeps its emotion while doing percussive work.
If you want to hear how much that matters, listen to the imitations. Most of them chop a sound. Disclosure chop a person.
What Korean Producers Took From It
You can hear Settle in a lot of Korean production, and not only in dance records. The two step feel, the swung hi hat, the vocal used as a rhythm instrument, all of it turns up in K-pop B sides and in the work of local producers who were teenagers when it came out. That is a more durable form of influence than a chart placing.
The Burnout Was the Most Useful Thing They Did
The section below covers it properly, but it belongs near the top too. In 2022 Howard Lawrence pulled out of an Australian tour and said plainly that he was struggling with going back on the road. A touring act at that level saying that out loud, and the other half of the act backing it, is rarer than it should be in a business that treats exhaustion as a credential.
I have watched people in this city work themselves into the ground for bookings worth a fraction of what Disclosure were turning down. Anything that makes stopping look survivable is worth pointing at.
Where Disclosure Actually Are in 2026
The Good
Both brothers are on the road again. The spring 2026 North American run goes from 7 April to 9 May, two nights at Santa Barbara Bowl, both Coachella weekends, three nights at Denver’s Mission Ballroom, then Raleigh, Atlanta, Nashville, Detroit and Chicago. Three nights in one room is the interesting number there. That is not a festival act coasting, that is a pair backing themselves to hold a crowd for a proper residency-style run.
They have also kept releasing rather than trading on Settle, which is the trap most acts with a defining debut fall into. Alchemy in 2023 was made fast and deliberately loose, and the recent singles, including Deeper with Leon Thomas, sit closer to their instincts than the big-feature-guest era did.
The Bad, and It Is the Most Important Thing Here
In September 2022 Howard Lawrence pulled out of the duo’s Australian tour, saying he had been really struggling with going back on the road and needed time to look after himself. Guy carried the Australian dates with the team. Howard called it hitting a breaking point.
He came back, and the fact that both brothers are touring in 2026 is genuinely good news. But I do not want to file that under a happy ending and move on, because the thing that broke him is not fixed and it is not personal to him. Touring electronic music at that level means a flight, a hotel, a ninety minute set and another flight, repeated for months, in an industry that treats availability as the product. I have watched people much less famous than Howard Lawrence get taken apart by a much gentler version of that schedule. The realities of the job are not only a problem at the bottom.
Have Disclosure Played Korea?
Yes, twice, and I had this wrong in an earlier version of this piece. My mistake was checking the Ultra Korea lineup history and setlist.fm, neither of which shows a Korean date, which is a useless proxy for a band that mostly came here on festival and promoter bookings.
24 July 2016, Jisan Valley Rock Festival, Jisan Forest Resort in Icheon. A live band set on the Caracal tour, on at half ten. The set ran The Kids, High Times, Seven Days In Sunny June, F for You, Jaded, Magnets, Omen, You & Me. Korean fan archives describe it as their first visit to the country and the live show was well received.
28 April 2018, KINTEX Hall 9, Goyang. A DJ set this time, a headline solo show, promoted by D2 Global Company. The undercard is the interesting part and tells you exactly what the Seoul promoter market looked like in 2018: a pre-party with Keith Ape, Owen Ovadoz and B-Free, a pre-stage set from Deepshower, and an afterparty with Alison Wonderland, Cherokee and 19xx. A British house act headlining, Korean hip-hop underneath, an Australian producer after. Nobody would build that bill in London.
One detail worth flagging because it dates the era precisely: the ticket listing for the 2018 show was foreigner-only, sold to non-Korean nationals with ID through a tourism platform. That was a normal way to sell a Seoul show at the time and it is worth remembering when people talk about how international the scene was. Some of it was international because it was sold that way.
Their first Asia tour was 2016. They have not been back to Korea since 2018.
What I Actually Think
Settle did something for house music that almost nothing else has managed, which is that it made a room full of people who did not know they liked house music dance to house music. That is the hardest trick in this job. Snobbery about it, and there was a lot in 2013, mostly came from people who had never had to move a crowd that did not already agree with them.
What I admire more now is the second act. They were handed a formula that would have paid indefinitely and they kept moving, including into places that did not work as well. Alchemy is not their best record and I would still rather have it than a fourth attempt at Settle.
Frequently Asked Questions
Have Disclosure played in Korea?
Yes, twice. A live band set at Jisan Valley Rock Festival on 24 July 2016, and a DJ set headlining KINTEX Hall 9 in Goyang on 28 April 2018. They have not returned since.
Are Disclosure still active in 2026?
Yes, with North American dates announced for spring 2026, though Howard Lawrence has spoken publicly about stepping back from touring at points. Check current listings rather than relying on this piece.
Why was Settle such a big deal?
Because it made people who did not know they liked house music dance to house music. That is a harder trick than it sounds, and most of the snobbery about it in 2013 came from people who had never had to move a crowd that did not already agree with them.
Who sang on Latch?
Sam Smith, before they were widely known. It is a good example of the point made elsewhere on this site about dance records being carried by a voice that was not yet famous.
What was the Korean dance scene like when Disclosure played here?
The 2018 KINTEX bill is the best snapshot: Keith Ape, Owen Ovadoz and B-Free on the pre-party, Deepshower before the headline, Alison Wonderland after. And the tickets were sold foreigner-only through a tourism platform, which was a normal way to sell a Seoul show at the time.
Sources
- JamBase on the spring 2026 North American dates
- EDM.com on Howard Lawrence’s touring hiatus and statement
- Alchemy
- DJ Mag on recent singles
- setlist.fm and Korean promoter archives for the 2016 and 2018 Korean dates
If this profile has something wrong in it, or if you are connected to the artist and would like a correction or a takedown, contact me and I will act on it.
Written from Seoul, by someone who has been in the booth for more than twenty years. More on the site, or book a DJ.
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