Burial – Rival Dealer

December 11, 2013 • Hyperdub Records

I've been trying to ignore the hype train that shows up with every new Burial release, but with the amount of quality stuff this guy has been putting out lately, it's been kind of unavoidable. The latest in his repertoire is definitely his weirdest and most difficult to wrap my head around, but I still find myself enjoying it on some weird half-sincere, half-bewildered level.

It helps that he's obviously trying to keep his sound fresh, and it seems to be working. "Rival Dealer" takes on a more high-energy, almost disco-like breakbeat, but still with his standard depressive noir-urban atmosphere. The soundscaping on this track is just fantastic; the background noise and low distorted grinding and vocal samples all gel together perfectly. The beat seems a bit cheesy at first, but it's definitely been growing on me.

The other two tracks are even less normal as far as Burial goes, but that's not saying a whole lot. "Hiders" is essentially some kind of weird dream-pop-disco thing; "Come Down to Us" slows that down to something reminiscent of dreamy cloud rap. But even with the weirdness, it's that trademark mood that glues things together, even when the arrangements get so sprawling and abstract.

While on the whole Rival Dealer is definitely not near as engrossing as Kindred was, Burial is definitely still on a roll with these last few EPs. Definitely one to check out if you're in an especially odd mood.

(direct link if the video doesn't work)

Burial – Truant / Rough Sleeper

December 17, 2012 • Hyperdub

I almost feel like I have to cover this release after being so thoroughly impressed with Kindred and gushing about it (like everyone else). Let the record show that I am by no means any sort of Burial fanboy—and I shall back this up by saying that Truant / Rough Sleeper is decent but still kind of a disappointment.

The music is taking a somewhat more stripped-down approach than usual (which is kind of saying a lot); more minimalist drum beats and deep bass lines with less reverb and wide-open atmospheres. The standard glitches and industrial samples and vocal clips are all there, though there are a few nice new surprises like the acoustic bass at the end of "Truant" and the organ opening "Rough Sleeper". It's the same old Burial aesthetic, though, which is a good thing if you're already into the older material.

But the songs themselves, especially "Truant", feel weak. While there are some good beats and well-constructed ideas, they almost never actually go anywhere, and if they do, it's not for long, as the music tends to abruptly cut off and fade into something totally different, which is very jarring. It makes it feel like these are either meant to be separate tracks, or there are meant to be transitions there that never got filled in. Either way, they always jolt me out of the music right when I'm getting comfortable with where it is.

There is a major highlight in the middle of "Rough Sleeper", though; the way the vocal samples are used alongside a more interesting shuffle beat is really nice. It sounds very fresh, somehow, even though it's most reminiscent of Untrue. Maybe it's the tubular bell samples (or whatever that is).

Anyway, on the whole, the EP is alright, but I'm not getting too excited over it. "Rough Sleeper" is a fine track, but some sections of it and most of "Truant" feel unnecessary. It's still worth a listen if you're already a fan, of course; just don't go in expecting something of the same caliber as Kindred.

5

Burial – Kindred

February 12, 2012 • Hyperdub

There is something to be said for music after all.

I've been a casual listener of Burial for just a little while now, and I was never really a fan; both his first two albums were "just okay, nothing special" in my books. I decided to jump on the hype bandwagon for Kindred and give it a shot (as everyone on the Internet seemed to be crapping their pants over it). I was pretty lukewarm to the EP at first, but something compelled me to keep listening.

Where Untrue seemed to me like a dense collection of thirteen songs, Kindred tosses the songs for a complete focus on texture and sound—and it seems like Burial has mastered sound. The despairing-stormy-urban atmosphere played with before is amazingly done here. The sweeps of static, glitches, and samples are all perfectly placed and each one fits the mood exactly right. Just listen to the last half of "Ashtray Wasp"; all the crackles and ambience, together with the lonely vocals and the way samples are integrated into the beats create a stunning experience.

Speaking of which, when it comes to the beats, the more house-influenced bits—"Loner" and most of "Ashtray Wasp"—I'm not a huge fan of. Burial is much better at the skittery off-tempo step rhythms of "Kindred" and the uneasiness of those patterns fit the atmosphere much better than a straight 4/4 dance beat. Fortunately, the mood isn't ruined since the synth and bass lines all help to glue the drums to the ambience and they do a pretty nice job of it. Besides, the beats themselves usually take a backseat to the other sounds anyway—even just looking at the amount of playtime that simply has beats—so I'm not too upset.

Heck, Burial even fixed the main thing about Untrue that I hated: the vocals. While Untrue mercilessly mutilated the vocals to fit the tracks through egregious pitch-shifting and beat them into the listener's head through over-repetition, in Kindred we have none of those problems. Since it's not as song-oriented, vocals are a bit more sparse and the ones that are repeated more don't have the irritating forced correction (see the middle of "Ashtray Wasp"). Instead, they are again used to add to the texture and mood of the EP to great effect, in way that sort of reminds me of Pogo, which is pretty cool.

Finally Burial has made everything click together just right for me. The desolate yet still-somewhat-dancy atmosphere is right up my alley and I'm glad I gave it a shot. Kindred isn't perfect, but it's definitely the best I've heard from Burial and is certainly one of the better releases I've heard from this year. It's absolutely worth checking out especially for those—like me—who had trouble getting into his albums.

8