Disclosure – Alexandra Palace, London 08/03/14

Disclosure had their first top 20 single back in October 2012. The two brothers weren’t even twenty at the time. Tonight, just over a year later, they’re playing a gig in the 10,000 capacity Alexandra Palace, having been sold out months in advance. If they’ve been nervous at any point, it’s been impossible to detect so far, and tonight is no exception. The material of their debut Settle absolutely roars with confidence, and this set is a remarkably assured hour of near perfect dance music.

From the first pulse (opening with the brilliant “F For You”, with Blige’s reworked vocal) the sound throughout the venue is absolutely flawless – a truly wonderful aural experience. Both low end and melody rush across the venue with crystalline clarity, coursing through your body and drowning out distractions no matter where you are in the room. And with the towering projections of the famous Disclosure doodle singing along to the choruses, or morphing into wider animation, the set effortlessly takes on the gigantic scale of spectacle this room demands.

The songs have no problem in expanding to fill a show of this magnitude. Over the last year, Disclosure’s singles have become borderline omnipresent, and it’s easy to understand why. Choruses like those of “Confess To Me” or “White Noise” are the pure gold of pop music song writing. To have created a debut with so many of these gems is astonishing, and bringing out guest vocalist after guest vocalist to add a live jolt to the spirit of so many of these things is a thrilling concert experience. And the pieces without vocal stack up nicely too – the swooping throb of cuts like “Stimulation” hitting a groove of unrivalled intensity, even without the support of razor sharp vocal hooks.

It’s not entirely unblemished, of course. As good as Settle is, it still at least very occasionally shows the hallmarks of underdevelopment and immaturity. Tracks like “Grab Her” are still effective as dance cuts, but move to the tune of a much more clunky formula. And that’s to say nothing of the crowd themselves – at least 30% surprisingly disengaged; pointlessly jostling and asking for pills, recording their own friends with an iPhone, only tipping cursory glances to the front of the room.

But by and large Disclosure are absolutely unstoppable, and the set is ultimately defined by highlights like “Latch” – that first ever top 20 single. That song is a devilish paradox, packaging one of the most addictive dance floor numbers into one of the most complex time signatures imaginable. But such is the brilliance of Disclosure’s craft – managing to combine a nuance of musicianship, with an absolute firestorm of immediacy. It’s a set loaded with high points, and driven by a hungry momentum. At heart, it’s absolutely irresistible fun, designed first and foremost to make you move, and this is something it achieves from the first bar of rhythm, and maintained throughout its entire run.

• Photo by Siamak Amini from Brixton Academy, November 2013. See full gallery here.