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Points: 65760 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 11 2013 at 22:18
Originally posted by jude111 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.
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Points: 1754 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 11 2013 at 22:23
Originally posted by A Person A Person wrote:

Originally posted by jude111 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." That song ends the EP 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."


Edited by jude111 - December 11 2013 at 22:32
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Points: 1754 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 11 2013 at 22:28

I got into an online discussion with a couple of people who were lamenting Burial "suddenly becoming political and personal." I argued:

Well, that's what nails this release for me. Perhaps Burial is Banksy after all. (Not really. But in a way...) This is a year when transgender Chelsea Manning was sentenced to life in prison for the "crime" of exposing US war crimes.

Transgender Lana Wachowski, who is quoted at length by Burial at the end of this EP, wrote and directed The Matrix and V for Vendetta. The Guy Fawkes masks that became the symbol for Anonymous (hacking group) and Occupy Wall Street come from Wachowski's V for Vendetta, while The Matrix's theme of a pervasive and ubiquitous surveillance grid controlled by the Feds (personified by Agent Smith) has been shown to be much closer to reality than we ever knew, by Edward Snowden's massive whistleblowing of the NSA via journalist Glenn Greenwald (who is also gay, and whose husband was detained as a terrorist by the UK, because he was working for the Guardian newspaper). 

For me, Burial's album manages to reference all of this, through the build-up to the Wachowski denouement. Not so much overtly, but it's a part of the reality of the last year - or 6 months, actually, when Snowden's revelations first broke, Chelsea Manning was sentenced to life in prison soon after, Wikileaks' Julian Assange remains holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy, and then last month, Anonymous hacktivist Jeremy Hammond was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

There's also the way in which Burial manipulates voices to morph and oscillate between male and female genders. That's a link between Untrue and Rival Dealer, this continued exploration of sexuality and gender. Then there's the pirate radio theme that runs throughout Burial's work, including this one. That's big-time political: an underground community radio for the people, not beholden to commercial interests or control by the State. To me, Burial's music has always been deeply political...
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Points: 65760 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 11 2013 at 22:38
Originally posted by jude111 jude111 wrote:

Originally posted by A Person A Person wrote:

Originally posted by jude111 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.
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Points: 1754 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 11 2013 at 22:49
Originally posted by A Person 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.
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Points: 65760 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 11 2013 at 22:54
Originally posted by jude111 jude111 wrote:

Originally posted by A Person 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.
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Points: 1754 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 11 2013 at 23:01
Originally posted by A Person A Person wrote:

 
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.

Maybe this is going too far, but the ending of the first track reminds me of The Orb's Little Fluffy Clouds - the way the woman talks about how at night she watches "the stars and the constellations... And then one night, I saw something come down to us, come down to us..."

That last track is the one that really gets to me. Massive song, and so uplifting too.

UPDATE: It turns out, the 2nd track on the Rival Dealer EP, "Hiders," has a small sample of Hendrix's 1983, A Merman I Should Be. (http://www.whosampled.com/sample/242119/Burial-Hiders-Jimi-Hendrix-1983...-A-Merman-I-Should-Turn-to-Be/)

UPDATE 2: On her BBC Radio 6 program Mary Anne Hobbs read the complete text message that Burial sent to her:

"I put my heart into the new EP, I hope someone likes it. I wanted the tunes to be anti-bullying tunes that could maybe help someone to believe in themselves, to not be afraid, and to not give up, and to know that someone out there cares, and is looking out for them. So, it's like an angel spell to protect them against the unkind people and the dark times and the self-doubts."

You can listen to it here, it begins at around the 50-minute mark: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03lnkby

UPDATE 3: I don't know if this article is taking the piss, but it claims that Burial sent a Tweet which he then deleted, tweeting, "My Rival Dealer release is probably my worst, but I know you guys will love it."

What's weird about this article though is that this author has plagiarized my very own writing on this EP, which I posted at Fact Mag and Dubstepforum.com (which I've just about given up on; judging by the monosyllabic gruntings that pass for most posts there, I suspect I'm writing to 16 year olds).

http://stoneyroads.com/burial-my-rival-dealer-release-is-probably-my-worst/

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. It's like Burial's inviting us to see this EP as a kind of graffiti, with him painting sounds and samples and other noise over the surface of the work... 


Edited by jude111 - December 17 2013 at 22:26
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Points: 1754 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 17 2013 at 22:26
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
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Points: 1754 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 07 2014 at 14:53

A Four Tet interview came out today. He talks at length about Burial, and the frustration of being the "middle-man":
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Points: 1754 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 31 2014 at 15:04
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
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