“For a long time, we were writing purely with a blank canvas,” Alfie Granger-Howell tells Apple Music. “I think we were quite surprised that everything came out as happy and celebratory as it did. I think it just shows how much we were missing it, missing everything.” As Dusky, Granger-Howell and Nick Harriman have produced barnstorming club anthems since forming in 2011—connecting retro concepts with thrilling melodies and experimental sonics. During the lockdown in 2020, the pair was afforded just enough time to pause and reconsider past ideas. “This is made up of snippets that we started many years ago,” Harriman says of the duo's third album, JOY. “Some were maybe more recently, but it was all laid out and finished during lockdown, and for much of the time, we just felt like writing dancy club tracks.” And out surfaces a euphoric, hopeful record that exudes a faith in optimism and slick, deep groove. And out surfaces a restorative ride serving polished, driving jungle (“Invisible”), vintage anthems (“Local Newspaper”), and, as ever, a taste for choice sample flips (“Eros”). “This could have easily been something darker, and a bit moody, but we didn’t want to wallow in the lack of being able to do what we love,” adds Granger-Howell. “Which is playing music to people, going out and enjoying music—this is trying to make up for that.” Read on for the pair’s guide across their third album track by track.
“Soundcheck” (feat. Rainy Milo)
Nick Harriman: “I was digging around on YouTube for samples, which we do a lot, looking for a cappellas, little samples, bits and bobs. And I came across a video of Rainy Milo doing a sound check in a club. So we built these chords underneath those vocals, and the beat and bass came later. Then, we sent it to her, and she really liked it! It was a random video that had been floating around online for a long time, so she was cool with it.”
“Hildegard”
Alfie Granger-Howell: “I was reading a book about the history of music at the time—about a woman called Hildegard of Bingen, quite a character. She was a polymath, a composer of music, a scientist, an interesting woman, so the name just came and it stuck. A lot of our track names are quite unusual, and it's just that sometimes you're in the flow of writing something in the studio, or during a flight...in case the laptop crashes, and you don't really want to interrupt the flow.”
“E-Dawn”
AG-H: “This track started with a sample also, a drum break from ‘Surgery' by [British producer and DJ] Doc Scott. We basically took the rhythm of his bassline, changed the notes, and then built the pad chords around that. The piano came in later, based off those chords.”
“Wave”
NH: “The title here is up for people to decide with its connotation—a wave of emotion, a wave of sound, a physical wave?”
“Eros”
AG-H: “This one we started a really long time ago, in 2013. Nick came up with the pads, the chord sequence, and the little symphony section. We wrote it as an ambient bed—a little idea in the studio to save and come back to. And it had a lot of permutations. Which is interesting as tracks like ‘E-Dawn’ are quite straightforward in their construction, whereas this one involved a lot of changing, trying out things, back and forth. It had a garage-y beat, back then, and a totally different bassline, but we’d come back to it sporadically, listen to the bounce, but nothing changed until we went back in during the pandemic.”
“Invisible”
AG-H: “Here, we had quite a clear vision of where we wanted to go. It’s quite a ravey track, inspired by early jungle, hardcore crossover stuff, and a bit of an [British DJ and producer] LTJ Bukem influence, for sure. I took a jungle break, slowed it down, and added this four-to-the-floor kick over it. We sat on it for a good few months, but again, we’d return every few weeks to add something.”
“Take Me High”
NH: “With the outro of ‘Invisible,' sonically, it just made sense to roll into this track.”
AG-H: “This is a good example of [a song] that took a while, but eventually worked out nicely once we found the right pieces. To start, we had the vocal sample, which we thought was really strong, but we spent some time trying different drums. Originally, this was faster, closer to hard techno, a bit more like a [French DJ & producer] Laurent Garnier-style track.”
“Fields”
NH: “At the time I was saying how much we were missing festivals. Some really particular experiences that we had growing up: going to Glastonbury, and we used to go to Glade Festival for a while. Getting familiar to the different styles of techno, trance and stuff, and a bit more leftfield as well—this was very much inspired by those times.”
“Lift”
NH: “We started this during the pandemic with a really clear idea, influenced by garage and rave sounds. We’ve sampled some rave stabs, on a swung, garage-y beat. We also had a few versions of this, messing with vocals; there’s one we play out that samples [2000 single] ‘Joy' by Mark 'Ruff' Ryder, but we couldn’t get it cleared. Mark was cool with it. But, as with a lot of these tracks, unfortunately, he doesn’t own the rights. So we went right back and switched up some other details.”
“Local Newspaper”
AG-H: “We put this together [in 2020] right in the middle of the first lockdown, with this idea from the outset—the old-school house-inspired piano. That section came first. And I took a keyboard home from the studio, and just improvised for the keys. A lot of the time, you can hear something in your head, go to the keyboard, and get it done; this came together like that—really quickly. It’s always the details, the edits and arrangements, that are the most time-consuming. But it’s all about that extra 5% at the end.”
“Supply Systems”
AG-H: “We wanted a continuation of a theme we'd tried on a couple of tracks: one on [German house label] Running Back, [2019 single] 'Boris Borisson's Trip to Morrisons,' and also [2017 single] 'Bowed'. We considered swapping this out and using it for the EP, but it represents so much of what we’ve done in the past, so we have to stick it here.”
“Pharaoh”
AG-H: “Early on in album mode we made this track. It’s quite progressive in the sense that it builds up a narrative and then changes up quite a bit. This is something that's equally for headphone listening as it is for the dance floor, and it’s very jungle-inspired—slowed-down jungle, basically.”
“Silver”
AG-H: “This is a bit of a palate cleanser in a way. It’s an extension of the track before, like a beatless version, or maybe a little reprise to go on the end.”