Burial Appreciation Thread

Burial news today: He posted a picture of himself, and wrote a message at the Hyperdub website.

Here's an article about it: http://consequenceofsound.net/2014/01/this-is-burial/

And here's the page at Hyperdub: http://www.hyperdub.net/burial/

There's also a few more pics of Burial, but not many people seem to realize it: http://cn.last.fm/music/Burial/+images?page=1


Edited by jude111 - January 31 2014 at 15:07

UPDATE 4: Just noticed a really cool sound embedded in this EP: the sound of a spray paint can being shaken, and then followed by one of Burial's characteristic spraying of white noise/static. It happens several times. It's like Burial's inviting us to see this EP as a work of graffiti, with him painting sounds and samples and other noise over the surface of the work... 

Edited by jude111 - December 17 2013 at 22:40

jude111 wrote: A Person wrote:   It's nothing like he's done before, the music/mood on Rival Dealer feels completely new. The theme of the samples is very deliberate so it's hard to ignore. I doubt it's a coming out of the closet kind of thing as well, but he must have some reason to have done it. I hope he is less mysterious than usual and sheds some light on it eventually. I have to say, I'm loving this EP; it exceeded my expectations, even though I'm obviously a bit obsessed by Burial's music, haha. Definitely has a different feel from the previous EPs, and a strong identity of its own. I did notice that a sample from "Loner" ("There's something out there") is reprised here. It helps give a nice continuity from the Kindred EP, even if they sound so different.

I noticed that too. I also noticed that it has a similar structure to the Truant/Rough Sleeper EP on the first and last tracks, where the music fades or changes to something that sounds like it could be its own song. I like that he made music that is happy/uplifting but somehow still sad.

jude111 wrote: A Person wrote: jude111 wrote: I quite like this EP. Been listening to it non-stop. It's really brilliant, and there's more going on here narrative-wise than previous EPs. Ture, I really like how the samples are used in a thematic/narrative way. There's quite a lot of buzz about this, with people wondering whether Burial is doing a "Frank Ocean" and coming out of the closet. Basically, there's a quote in the first song saying, "It's about sexuality," and, "This is who I am." The first two songs end with a voice saying, "Come down to us, come down to us," pointing us to the last song, whose title of course is: "Come Down to Us." The EP ends with a long quote from transgender film director Lana Wachowski (The Matrix, V for Vendetta).    The quote as it appears on the EP: "Without examples, without models, I began to believe voices in my head - that I was a freak, that I am broken, that there is something wrong with me, that I will never be lovable... Years later I find the courage to admit that I am transgender and this doesn’t mean that I am unlovable... So that this world that we imagine in this room might be used to gain access to other rooms, to other worlds previously unimaginable."  My take: I don't know that Burial is "coming out." I do think however that Burial's come out strongly in support of gay and transgender rights and an end to bigotry - and any and all who feel "lost," "truant," who are "sleeping rough," "homeless." Lana Wachowski's speech, the part about "this world that we imagine... might be used to gain access to other rooms, to other worlds previously unimaginable," is what this EP is about. "Come on in, out of the cold."

It's nothing like he's done before, the music/mood on Rival Dealer feels completely new. The theme of the samples is very deliberate so it's hard to ignore. I doubt it's a coming out of the closet kind of thing as well, but he must have some reason to have done it. I hope he is less mysterious than usual and sheds some light on it eventually.

A Person wrote: jude111 wrote: I quite like this EP. Been listening to it non-stop. It's really brilliant, and there's more going on here narrative-wise than previous EPs. Ture, I really like how the samples are used in a thematic/narrative way.

Edited by jude111 - December 11 2013 at 22:32

Edited by jude111 - December 11 2013 at 16:26

Idk, I probably prefer his EPs to his LPs. I mean, s/t and Untrue are amazing, but Kindred and Truant/Rough Sleeper (haven't listened to others) are something else.

Horizons wrote: Quite happy, i would complain about not releasing another LP, but then we would wait 2 years for just as much material so - i'm good. :D Curious to see what he'll do here.

I only hope he has a treasure trove of material that he's not released, that will one day see the light of day. (There are a bunch of tracks that received airplay but have not been released; it's also known that he has collaborated with many artists, but has not allowed that material to be released.) In an old interview, he mentioned making an album after his first one, but discarding it because he thought it was too depressing, and quickly making Untrue and releasing that instead. There was a 2 track EP that was slated for release in 2008 (Hyperdub's website had a date of release for it: Feral Witchchild/Stairwell, I believe, which have turned up in pirated excerpts), but Burial changed his mind.

The thing that gets me is how quicly Untrue was made, while everything else he's made seems to have taken quite some time to put together. I know we don't like it when artists repeat themselves, and usually I agree, but in this case, Burial could've kept making Untrue-type albums and I'd be deleriously giddy. Still, I love everything he's done.



Edited by jude111 - December 02 2013 at 10:32

oh god yes oh god yes OH GOD YESSSSSSSS

It's winter again, which must mean: New Burial's bound to appear!

1. Four Tet hosted an 8-hour marathon on Rinse FM last week, during which he debuted an unreleased Burial collaboration, which is now on Youtube: http://pitchfork.com/news/52566-listen-four-tet-shares-an-unreleased-burial-collaboration/

2. Four Tet has a new album out, entitled Beautiful Rewind. It's quite a departure from his earlier work, and while it may not (or may) be a masterpiece, there's several amazing tracks, including Buchla, Aerial (my favorite), Parallel Jalebi, Kool FM, and most importantly for our purposes, the track Gong, which sounds to my ears like a definite Burial collaboration. So far there's no word whether Burial's on this track or not, but I've searched the internet and I'm definitely not the only person out there who hears Burial in this track. It can be heard here on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njiv2ZR4TZk

Burial's been known to seek anonymity in his collaborations. Examples include the track by "Dusk + Blackdown + ," called High Road (The mystery guest is widely known to be Burial.) There's also a suspicion that Burial worked with Kryptic Minds on their first dubstep CD, One of Us. (In an interview at the time, the Kryptic Minds duo talked about working closely with Burial. The interview can be found here: http://blackdownsoundboy.blogspot.com/2009/05/kryptic-minds-and-loefah.html)

So what do you think, is Gong a Burial collab?

[While I'm on the subject, some of my favorite Four Tet tracks that don't include Burial: Smile Around the Face, Love Cry, Hands, Pyramid.]


Edited by jude111 - October 13 2013 at 08:08