Modernising the Waltz Sequence - A Sonic Teardown of Latch by Disclosure

Deconstructing a piece of work is a crucial step when attempting to re-invent or recreate a song. Now, even though I will be curating a teardown of the song Latch (feat. Sam Smith) by Disclosure as a reference track for a remix I am producing of Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division, If you simply apply the same research techniques to any previously released song you will be able to gain all the information you need for your project. Remember to ALWAYS give credit where credit is due.

Track: Latch

Artist: Sam Smith

Album: Settle

Label: Universal-PMR Records

Producer: Disclosure

Writer(s): H. Lawrence, G. Lawrence ,S. Smith, J. Napier

Released: 8th of October, 2012

Tempo: 122BPM

Key: B flat Minor/ A flat Major

Signature: 6/8

Song Length: 4:16

Genre: Electronic/UK Garage

I'm sure most of you by now have heard of the infamous duo knows as Disclosure. Born and raised in Surrey, England; brothers, Guy and Howard Lawrence grew up around musical parents and listening to genres along the likes of Hip-Hop, Garage, Dubstep and even Drum and Bass. Upon the release of small projects they had produced and uploaded onto MySpace in 2010, the duo gained attention from a label called Moshi Moshi, who released a couple of their earlier songs and help paved their way through the music industry (AllMusic). The Lawrence's went on to release a series of EP's and singles through a multitude of record labels, one of those being Greco-Roman, a record company out of Berlin and London (Discogs). By 2013, Disclosure had gained a following in their respected genre's and on the 31st of May, the brothers released their first studio album "Settle". Not only did Settle gain them their first Grammy nomination for Best Electronic/Dance Album, it is also certified platinum in the UK and shot to number 1 on the US Electronic Dance chart in the year of its release (Digital Spy).

Structure

Most songs are written in a 4/4 or "common" time signature, this means that a song will have four, quarter note beats per measure in correlation to the BPM (Appendix A). Latch, on the other hand, is written in 6/8 time signature, this means that there is 6, eighth note beats per bar (dummies, 2019) (Appendix B).

Appendix A - 4/4 time signature

Appendix B - 6/8 time signature

Now, referring to Appendix C; Each measured block in Latch has a time signature of 6/8 and is 5.2 bars long (yellow & pink). At first this may seem like a very unplanned/unorthodox way to compose a song, but through further research and deconstruction I quickly realised that the Lawrence brothers intentionally did this. You see they broke each block into four measures of eight, eighth note beats (Lime & Red), with a kick and snare on the 1st, 3rd and 5th beat of each bar (orange & blue). By composing a song in a 6/8 time signature and applying this type of production technique, it eliminates the up-down waltz rhythm that is usually guaranteed to come with this chosen building block. I first listened to the song and found it very hard to determine the time signature as anything other than 4/4, it's because of this technique. Guy and Howard took a traditionally up-down (or down-up) rhythm sequence and was able to produce something that can now blend in with any other club hit you may hear in a 4/4 signature.

Appendix C - Beat/Bar structure for Latch

*This production technique is the main inspiration and reference for Project One*

After explaining the beat structure and taking it all into consideration, it is now a lot easier for me to move into the formatted structure and instrumentation...

Latch is written in an ABC or VERSE-CHORUS-BRIDGE format, the song structure is as follows...

For better reference use the image below...

Instrumentation

Although the first technical beat isn't until the 5th beat of the 1st bar, the brothers have used a vocal sample as the opening piece of sound that is also repeated at the end of each measured block (5.2 bars). This sample is heavily delayed with a noticeable amount of reverb added to it, making the articulation of words almost inaudible. Never the less, the females voice with it's joyful tonality has a very uplifting feel to it and greatly compliments Sam Smith's falsetto voice. In its peak the sample has a comfortable frequency range of 500-5kHz, perfect for human ears to listen to.

The drum sequence and arrangement in this piece of work is fairly constant and repetitive throughout the song. A bright kick that has a lot of tone or "noise", spanning from 50Hz-15kHz with a 48dB low pass filter @ 15kHz to allow room for the more melodic high frequencies in the mix. The snare and clap also stick to the bright and happy feel this song brings by eliminating a lot of the grunt from the lower end. Both have a lot of noise to them; the snares frequency range is 800Hz-15.5kHz with high and low cut filters on both of those frequencies. The Claps spectrum starts a little lower @ 650Hz-15.5kHz, a low cut EQ is applied to the Clap @ 650Hz and I speculate that there may also be a subtractive high shelf EQ around the 3kHz mark (Appendix D). Not only is this visible in a spectrum analyser it also makes sense from a production point of view. Sam Smiths voice is most dominant in the higher end of the spectrum and leaving as much room between the 1k-5kHz section for his vocal frequencies would increase the clarity of his unique voice. I also want to note the reverb that is added to the clap on the last hit in each measure block (same time as the female vocal sample). Through re-engineering and active listening techniques I theorise that there is a decay time that spans over 4 beats (about 1.2 seconds) with a short but clear pre-delay that works well with the large size of the reverb. Note the differences in Appendix E.

(Reverb processing is only used on the last hit of each measure, no compression was used in the example given, visible differences in lower/larger frequency waves)

Appendix D - EQ & Reverb Processing for Clap

Appendix E - Processing differences

(a) Original sample:

(b) Processed Sample:

The hi-hats in this production are clean and tight, they are (for the most of it) only present in the chorus, second half of Verse B, the second Bridge and the Outro. With a frequency range of 1k-17kHz and being barely panned to the right, the closed hat sits just outside the spectrum of the other instruments in the drum rack, giving it better clarity and bringing a big up-shift in the rhythm when it is introduced in the sections. An open hat and shaker are the final part of the drum rack that is to be introduced in the song, they are only included in the Chorus, second half of Verse B and the Outro. Both of these instruments sit at 650Hz-17kHz and have a constant alternating panning modulation between them, moving from the left to right speaker with added swing to maintain a life-like groove. For example, the Shaker plays in left speaker & the open hat plays in right speaker on the first beat, then the shaker is in the right speaker and open hat is in the left speaker on the second beat, going back and forth for their entire duration (Appendix F). In between the sequenced drum samples, are additional off-beat foley and percussive instrumentation (whips, cracks, pops etc.). These have been used very effectively to help somewhat, but not entirely eliminate the up-down groove of a 6/8 (or 3/4) time signature.

Appendix F - (Remembering that Latch's time signature is 6/8 but has been composed in blocks of 8/8)

(a) Open hat & Shaker placement in drum rack stage plot for 1st and 3rd beats of chorus

(b) Open hat & Shaker placement in drum rack stage plot for 2nd & 4th beats of chorus

The arrangement of the drums and percussion in this song are the key to its rhythm, they maintain and solidify the bright and energetic vibe that Sam Smith brings with his vocal ability. But as Matt Donner from Pyramid Sound explains, it is the relative modality of the repetitive, yet extremely complex chord structure alongside Smith's falsetto vocal chords that take this track to another world of music. Relative modality; Meaning that if the musical chords of this song are written in the key of B flat Minor, the relative Major key is A flat Major; and this is the key that Sam is singing in (Matt Donner. 2016). The 4 base chords of this track are in B flat minor (B flat dorian in this case) key scale; these chords are B flat minor, F minor, E flat major and D flat major. (Appendix G-a ) These four chords by themselves aren't very exciting when repeated for a full length song, so the brothers added extended chords to the mix. Extended chords are when you have a triad chord of three notes (usually the 1, 3 and 5 of a musical scale) and add another 3rd on to it (Matt Donner. 2016). the Lawrence brothers went way beyond just adding another 3rd on their chords, making the progression so detailed and full of texture (Appendix G-b).

Appendix G - Chord progression

(Musical notation received from Matt Donner at Pyramid Sounds)

(a) Base chord structure for Latch

(b) Extended chord structure for Latch

By using a complex chord structure such as this, as the base foundation for the production, all that Disclosure needed to do from here is simply create a few lush synth patches, add some side-chain compression, and apply filters and EQ's when needed; plus the help from a beautifully arpeggiated melodic synth. All thats left to do now is then send the track off to an elite vocal singer such as Sam Smith (seems simple, right?). I noticed little automation in this track, other than panning and filter automation applied to the risers and sweeps that are used to transition between verses. There may possibly be some automation to the textures in the breakdown.

It's a combination of the unique beat structure and extremely complex chords that give Latch its contagious rhythm. Techniques such as the ones used in this production are what really turn a simple beat into a song. I imagine that the extended chords in this piece took a while to figure out, but once they were decided upon everything else progressed very smoothly. I have taken many notes about how this piece has been put together and I definitely plan to incorporate them into my future productions.

REFERENCE WEBSITES:

Disclosure | Biography & History | AllMusic. (2019). AllMusic. Retrieved 21 February 2019, from https://www.allmusic.com/artist/disclosure-mn0002528416/biography

Greco-Roman. (2019). Discogs. Retrieved 26 February 2019, from https://www.discogs.com/label/124601-Greco-Roman

Disclosure album goes platinum in the UK. (2014). Digital Spy. Retrieved 26 February 2019, from https://www.digitalspy.com/music/a558795/disclosures-debut-album-settle-goes-platinum-in-the-uk/

Disclosure (3) Feat. Sam Smith (12) - Latch. (2019). Discogs. Retrieved 15 April 2019, from https://www.discogs.com/Disclosure-3-Feat-Sam-Smith-Latch/release/4432191

Disclosure: Settle Album Review | Pitchfork. (2013). Pitchfork.com. Retrieved 15 April 2019, from https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18091-disclosure-settle/

Interview: Sam Smith. (2019). The FADER. Retrieved 15 April 2019, from https://www.thefader.com/2013/10/09/interview-sam-smith

Common Music Time Signatures - dummies. (2019). dummies. Retrieved 14 April 2019, from https://www.dummies.com/art-center/music/piano/common-music-time-signatures/

Theory & Arrangement | Disclosure - Latch | Matt Donner. (2016). Pyramind Music Production School in San Francisco and Online. Retrieved 15 April 2019, from https://www.pyramind.com/training/blog/2016/5/10/theory-arrangement-disclosure-latch