Burial / Four Tet – Moth / Wolf Club [Text]

The elusive ghostly garage producer from South London Burial hooks up with electronica producer Four Tet for a mysterious black 12” platter. It’s not only the first new Burial material since Untrue but the first ever collaboration to surface too. The two may not be strangers mind as some sources say they go way back to school days. But back to the important things the music.

The warm shiny looped tinkle that brings in ‘Moth’ has a deep ambiance that can be found in either producers tracks this is until a synth creeps in that is all Tet before an all mighty skeletal 2-step pattern that is undeniably Burial drops and the track really stats to build. A slightly tropical counter rhythm plays off the garage beat as the pads really start to hypnotise. When the track finally breaks down into distant spectral soul snippets so loved by Burial and the percussive elements feed back in as the synths build is probably the finest moment on the 12”. It’s probably been said a lot about this track already due to the hype flying around but this really dose sound exactly like what you would imagine the two to conjure up.

The flip ‘Wolf Club’ is the real surprise, the ambiance is still all there as is the brooding melancholy but its all set off against a deep slow almost house beat that you don’t expect from a track with Burial on it. The beats on here are well and truly Four Tet but the pitched vocal samples are well and truly Burial-like. The main synth hook is so lush and warm it really makes the track as dose the percussion in the breakdown where it gets a little stripped back and funky before the hook comes back in again. It’s reminiscent of Actress and even Lukid in places via some deep Berlin techno.

Overall this is one hell of a lush, warm, well-produced and interesting 12” that shows different sides to both artists. When the dust settles on the hype that surrounds every new Burial release this high profile collaboration with Four Tet will no doubt stand strong against the material of each. It’s a subtle sophisticated sounding meeting of minds that’s well worth a listen.

http://www.myspace.com/burialuk

http://www.myspace.com/fourtetkieranhebden

Burial Collaborations

Burial has been quite ever since the mercury awards last year, well at least he hasn’t been in the public eye since then. But my god he has been busy where it counts most: in the studio if the rumours are right anyway.

First of all I read in an interview some time ago on ukhh with Flying Lotus where he mentioned after being asked about any Anglo-American collaborations he said, ‘I’ve also been working on something long term with Burial’ read it for your self here. This got my foaming at the mouth at the prospect, yet it was quite some time ago now and nothing has surfaced and there has hardly been a whisper since.

Then from the deep dark dance FWD>> comes news about people hearing a track that sounded like Burial from dBridge and low and behold confirmation comes from dubstepforum. Someone bumped into dBridge and he confirmed it.

There have been rumours a plenty for some time about Burial and D’n’B legend and Metalheadz owner Goldie hooking up but again nothing has surfaced and I once spent a good few hours locked into a sup-par Goldie hosted radio show on 1Xtra that promised a some sort of Burial action that never came.

Now for the real mouth watering part just a few weeks ago word came from a distributor that a Burial & Four Tet 12” was ready to drop at any moment. The tracks ‘Moth’ and ‘Wolf Cub’ are said to feature and I really don’t think any one but the lucky few have heard it, until clips appeared on Juno just yesterday. It sounds like business as usual from Burial but with a real tropical vibe and a four to the floor effort on the flip. I’m really not sure if it’s a collaboration or a split, but we will see next week.

Listen: Burial / Four Tet – Moth / Wolf Cub (Via Juno)


Then once again out of nowhere, well I say nowhere I mean Blackdown’s wicked Pitchfork column in an interview about Loefah’s new label Swamp 81 came word of Loe and Burial hooking up to remix Kryptic Minds for a 12” after the album drops.

I can almost hear these collaborations in my head when I think of the artists involved. Just imagine FlyLo’s organic flowing grooves playing off the sharp crackle of Burial’s ghostly garage or the D’n’B stylings of dBridge and Goldie bringing back the spirit of jungle together with a new pioneer. Then there is the subtle electronica of Four Tet with his crisp layers of atmospherics along side Burial’s vision. The deep half-stepping dark vision of Loefah with its massive bass and minimalist approach will be one hell of a juxtaposition to Burial’s riddims and Kryptic Minds vision of dubstep. Who knows when we will get to hear any of them mind but the mere speculation is pretty tantalising.

All pretty interesting stuff, and who says the mystery of Burial is now gone since the fuckers at The Sun ‘unmasked’ him. The music is doing the talking and that’s the way we like it.

http://www.myspace.com/burialuk

http://www.myspace.com/flyinglotus

http://www.myspace.com/exitrecords

http://www.myspace.com/metalheadzltd

http://www.myspace.com/fourtetkieranhebden

http://www.myspace.com/loefah

http://www.myspace.com/swamp81