Disclosure Settle Special Edition
Billie Kjergaard
In recent years, dance music's growing mainstream prominence has led to a number of excellent debuts: SBTRKT and Holy Ghost!'s self-titled efforts, Classixx's Hanging Gardens, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs' Trouble, and Katy B's On a Mission, to name a few. These records gained notice for recontextualizing the sounds of dance's various sub-genres-- disco, dubstep, house, and more-- into pop-leaning structures. The latest addition to this list is Settle, the brilliant debut album by Disclosure. The Surrey duo have not only made 2013's best dance record so far-- they've also concocted one of the most assured, confident debuts from any genre in recent memory. That they've done so on a major-label record that's absolutely loaded with guest spots-- these are typically red flags when approaching any dance full-length with crossover potential-- is nothing short of a miracle.
The brothers behind Disclosure, Howard and Guy Lawrence, seem impossibly young considering their talents: Guy is 21, while younger brother Howard just turned 18 a few weeks ago. But they've actually been on the scene for three years, and their artistic growth over that period is impressive. Back in 2010, Disclosure first emerged on the blog circuit's nether regions with "Street Light Chronicle", a slice of competent, indistinct bass music that sounded like what you'd expect from a pair that have cited Burial's Untrue and Joy Orbison's "Hyph Mngo" as their gateways into club fare. With every succeeding release, however, Disclosure rapidly moved away from "Street Light Chronicle"'s weatherbeaten greys towards a smoother, brighter sound. Last year's fantastic remix of Jessie Ware's "Running" greatly increased both artists' profiles; earlier this year, Disclosure's collaboration with AlunaGeorge singer Aluna Francis, "White Noise", rocketed to #2 on the UK Singles chart two weeks after its release. Clearly, they've come a long way in a short time.
A number of tracks from Disclosure's earlier releases would be considered highlights on any debut album. Two of them, "Boiling" and "What's in Your Head", from the enjoyable 2011 EP The Face, are relegated to bonus track status on Settle's deluxe edition. That such strong material didn't make the album proper speaks to its high quality. Over its hour-long runtime, Settle features an masterful sense of pacing, from the jacking propulsion of "When a Fire Starts to Burn" to the album's sweeping closer, "Help Me Lose My Mind". Dance music's long had a fickle relationship with the album format, but Settle's impeccable sequencing leads to an album that begs to be heard in its entirety.
Settle's playful, high-energy attitude is sometimes reminiscent of Remedy, Basement Jaxx's star-making 1999 debut. The duos share divisive tendencies: Jaxx's brash and hyper-active production style rubs some the wrong way, and Disclosure have been called out for their clear debt to established UK dance styles. Specifically, Disclosure have been charged with riding the resurgence of the syncopated, R&B-infused gait of late 1990s/early 2000s 2-step and UK Garage touchstones like MJ Cole's "Sincere" and Hardrive's "Deep Inside"; last month, they released an answer-song remix of 2-step kings Artful Dodger's "Please Don't Turn Me On"-- and this after after UKG veteran El-B offered his own dusty take on "Boiling" late last year, making the inspiration explicit.
The skepticism is understandable, to a point. UK dance culture has long prided itself on pushing things forward, and Disclosure's arrival on the scene-- not to mention bass music's current retro-fixated house excursions-- marks the first time in many years that the freshest dance sounds from across the pond sound a little second-hand. Ultimately though, complaining about young artists reviving sounds that they weren't around to experience the first time around is futile. We're a few years into an era where talented musicians are discovering influences new and old not through direct interaction with scenes but through their computers. And when the execution is this accomplished, it's hard to get too hung up on the source material. Some of Settle's giddiest highlights are clear UKG callbacks-- "Voices" and "You & Me", especially-- but Disclosure refuse to stick to any single genre. They effortlessly spin through romantic house ("Defeated No More", "F For You"), pitch-screwed bass music ("Second Chance"), and raunchy grime-inflected motifs ("Confess to Me"); nothing is off limits, and Settle is all the better for it.
For all its dance trappings, Settle is a pop record first and foremost, one that feels remarkably inclusive. The handful of male-led vocal cuts range from solid (Friendly Fires vocalist Ed MacFarlane's sultry take on "Defeated No More", Jamie Woon's emotive pleading on "January") to showstopping (the indelible, effusive "Latch", Howard Lawrence's surprisingly effective turn on "F for You"), but Settle's array of female voices are the record's nucleus. While a few notable names are used in surprising fashion-- folk-pop singer Lianne La Havas' effusive, bleated samples on "Stimulation", Jessie Ware's muted moves on "Confess to Me"-- the biggest star turns come from up-and-comers like Sasha Keable and London Grammar's Hannah Reid, who shares a co-writing credit on "Help Me Lose My Mind". While listening to Settle, James Blake's 2011 quote about U.S. dubstep's "frat-boy market" came to mind; in 2013, it could be argued that such aggressively chauvinistic attitudes pervade many areas of big-tent dance culture, and it's hard not to hear Settle's wide-reaching accessibility as a potential antidote to the trend.
Skirting dance's more bass-heavy strands, Disclosure take a spare approach to sampling throughout Settle. They lift a few stray sounds from Kelis and Slum Village and, most curiously, motivational speaker and self-proclaimed "hip-hop preacher" Eric Thomas, whose impassioned delivery is featured on the album's intro as well as "When a Fire Starts to Burn". The video for the latter brings the sample to life visually and it turns out to be a strange reflection of its source material. As was recently noted, dance music's history contains frequent intersections, ideological and otherwise, with religion. Much like when dance-pop alchemists Hot Chip released their own devotional to the dancefloor in the form of last year's stellar In Our Heads, Settle's appeal ultimately owes something to its spiritual tinge. Disclosure's unabashed pop sensibilities speak to the notion that music, as with a system of beliefs, can bring a diverse array of people-- the dance nerds and the poptimists, the club denizens and the festival obsessives, the perpetually stylish and the utterly clueless-- together as one. Settle is an album-length articulation of this idea, and it's hard not to believe in that.
By signing up you agree to our User Agreement (including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions), our Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement and to receive marketing and account-related emails from Pitchfork. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
IFRS 2 Share-based Payment requires an entity to recognise share-based payment transactions (such as granted shares, share options, or share appreciation rights) in its financial statements, including transactions with employees or other parties to be settled in cash, other assets, or equity instruments of the entity. Specific requirements are included for equity-settled and cash-settled share-based payment transactions, as well as those where the entity or supplier has a choice of cash or equity instruments.
A share-based payment is a transaction in which the entity receives goods or services either as consideration for its equity instruments or by incurring liabilities for amounts based on the price of the entity's shares or other equity instruments of the entity. The accounting requirements for the share-based payment depend on how the transaction will be settled, that is, by the issuance of (a) equity, (b) cash, or (c) equity or cash.
The concept of share-based payments is broader than employee share options. IFRS 2 encompasses the issuance of shares, or rights to shares, in return for services and goods. Examples of items included in the scope of IFRS 2 are share appreciation rights, employee share purchase plans, employee share ownership plans, share option plans and plans where the issuance of shares (or rights to shares) may depend on market or non-market related conditions.
IFRS 2 applies to all entities. There is no exemption for private or smaller entities. Furthermore, subsidiaries using their parent's or fellow subsidiary's equity as consideration for goods or services are within the scope of the Standard.
IFRS 2 does not apply to share-based payment transactions other than for the acquisition of goods and services. Share dividends, the purchase of treasury shares, and the issuance of additional shares are therefore outside its scope.
The issuance of shares or rights to shares requires an increase in a component of equity. IFRS 2 requires the offsetting debit entry to be expensed when the payment for goods or services does not represent an asset. The expense should be recognised as the goods or services are consumed. For example, the issuance of shares or rights to shares to purchase inventory would be presented as an increase in inventory and would be expensed only once the inventory is sold or impaired.
The issuance of fully vested shares, or rights to shares, is presumed to relate to past service, requiring the full amount of the grant-date fair value to be expensed immediately. The issuance of shares to employees with, say, a three-year vesting period is considered to relate to services over the vesting period. Therefore, the fair value of the share-based payment, determined at the grant date, should be expensed over the vesting period.
As a general principle, the total expense related to equity-settled share-based payments will equal the multiple of the total instruments that vest and the grant-date fair value of those instruments. In short, there is truing up to reflect what happens during the vesting period. However, if the equity-settled share-based payment has a market related performance condition, the expense would still be recognised if all other vesting conditions are met. The following example provides an illustration of a typical equity-settled share-based payment.
c80f0f1006