Dusky

London house duo Dusky rode the early 2010s house revival to success beginning with their 2011 debut album, Stick by This, which was championed by tastemakers like Pete Tong and Loefah. After recording for various labels, including a 2016 major-label stint that yielded the full-length Outer, they launched their own imprint and built an impressive and prolific catalog that included EPs like 2017′s Cold Heart and 2019′s Imagine What. In 2021 Dusky celebrated their first decade together with the vibrant and life-affirming Joy, then nodded to their early-2000s influences on 2022′s Pressure. Growing up with the pirate radio sounds of happy hardcore, U.K. garage, jungle, and drum’n’bass, Nick Harriman and Alfie Granger-Howell met in the sixth form, bonding over a shared love of electronic music-making and DJ’ing. After many years of practice and experimentation, they initially started releasing music in 2009, putting out funky, tribal, deep house under the name Solarity. They soon began a profitable association with Above & Beyond’s Anjunadeep label, through which they released a slew of singles over the next couple of years, gradually going in a trancier, techier direction that gained them a host of appreciative fans. In 2011, they launched the Dusky alias with the full-length album Stick by This, also on Anjunadeep. Slick and intricately crafted, it was a major progression for the duo and saw them finally exploring a sound that was truly their own, influenced as much by the soul, classical, and jazz they had always liked as by any electronic dance music style. The sound was still rooted in deep house, but now shades of their formative influences reared their heads. They got a big boost when Pete Tong named Stick by This his album of the year, but really broke out to a wider audience in 2012 when dubstep kingpin Loefah played their single “Flo Jam” on his Rinse FM show. Further singles followed on the likes of Aus Music, and they had another big breakthrough in 2013 when one of these, “Careless,” topped the influential Beatport Top 100 chart for three weeks. In 2014, they launched their own label, 17 Steps. Constant gigging and a steady stream of singles gradually increased their profile until in 2016 they signed a major-label deal with Polydor. The singles “Ingrid Is a Hybrid” and the Wiley-featuring “Sort It Out Sharon” were featured on their feverishly anticipated major-label debut album Outer, which incorporated techno and prog-house influences. Over the next few years, Dusky continued to evolve, releasing a steady succession of singles and EPs including Cold Heart (2017), Aset Forever (2018), and Imagine What (2019), all on their 17 Steps imprint. They also recorded a pair of EPs, Life Signs, Vol. 1 and 2, for the German house label Running Back. Recorded during the global pandemic, Dusky’s third album, Joy, was released in 2021. Leaning heavily into euphoric breakbeats, the album’s intent was twofold; it marked the duo’s tenth anniversary while also celebrating a return to the dancefloor after the lockdowns of the previous year. They rode this life-affirming mood into their next album, 2022′s Pressure, which honored the U.K. garage and 2-step styles of the early 2000s. ~ John D. Buchanan