Burial

As I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for Burial’s DJ Kicks mix that is apparently shipping in a week from Boomkat, I thought I would have another listen to his self titled debut album as I hadn’t reviewed it on this blog before. My first Burial listen was from Untrue and I fell in love with it there and then and I must admit Burial’s S/T took me a little more time to get my head round. Now I have and its pretty much a classic, one day I’m sure it will be hailed as much, but maybe it’s a little early to tell right now it only came out in 2006. it made massive ripples though for an underground urban dance album. It topped many polls that year as album of the year and for some reason this still passed me by at the time.

This is darker than Untrue it doesn’t have that bright lyrical, vocal splashing the follow up has its darker and more straightforward dubstep in comparison. Burial has always been on the outskirts of dubstep dipping in to the style and many others all at once. His myspace describes him as 2-step, Hardcore and Garage, this might give us some clues of what treats we have in store for the mix album, but more on that when it pops through my letter box.

The album Burial does have a vocal track on it though from Hyperdub and Kode 9 collaborator Spaceape. He does his dub poetry brilliantly over the sparse dark skipping beats and crackles. The album Memories Of The Future by Kode 9 & The Spaceape is another dubstepping masterpiece that didn’t have the mass crossover appeal that Burial has.

Burial is full of a kind of sonic poetry about late night London with rain lashing down and pirate radio stations perforating the murky airwaves. Spewing out dark underground sounds to the lost souls of the city. You can’t really have a Burial review without mentioning a Night Bus I think it’s the law or something so there you go. You can hear snippets of influence from rave, hardcore, 2-step, garage and ambient works in Burial but he filters it through his own unique ear into something bigger than the sum of its parts, its breath taking some of it. Emotion seeps through it, which is something that is hard to come by sometimes in electronic music. I say electronic as Burial obviously is but it sounds pretty damn organic and warm too, the dubstep, 2-step whatever rhythms bring a swing that offsets the coldness. Every song is a cracker and pulls this album together perfectly.

Burial and his anonymous ways add a ace air of the unknown to all his music, it makes it an event to behold, you know when Burial drops something its going to make waves. I for one can’t wait to hear his DJ Kicks mix and I hope to god another full album appears in the near future too.