The anticipated new album from one of dubstep's shining stars is a bit more of an accessible affair than the debut. The darkness is still present, but it's distilled through the soulful cut-up vocals, sounding at times like a modern update of Goldie or Roni Size.
As last year drew to a close, we watched Burial's self-titled debut creep up from nowhere only to top many best of 2006 charts. Now the follow-up, Untrue, seems poised to do similar damage in '07. For lack of a better term, Burial makes dubstep, though I would argue that the palette and scope moves far beyond any tag. What Burial has done -- twice now -- is craft albums that are more about the overall journey than the stops along the way. He creates a deep, mysterious and dark world that is at once easy to penetrate for some, and a completely foreign place for others. Unlike many contemporary electronic producers, this is not a compilation of singles, nor is it a tastemaker's collection of inspirational songs; it's mood music...in the best possible sense. Burial makes albums that dare to be played from start to finish, and he invites the listener to step into the cavernous realm in which he dwells. Imagine coming in off the dark, shimmering urban city streets and walking into a party; but rather than stepping onto the dance floor, you take solace from hanging out on the sidelines, simply observing the action in front of you. Assembly line clicks, pops, booms, and scratches move along like the best Detroit techno, still the melodies are steeped in 2-step/garage, and England's low end theory. Burial's albums feel expansive, open, and wondrous. This is not, however, a party record, yet when the beats do drop, the firm influence of dance culture is embraced. If you're into new emergences in dance music and culture, Untrue may blow you away, but if you're the occasional dabbler in the world of electronic music, you may miss the point, it's hard to say. I feel like Burial could appeal to many, from fans of Battles to Panda Bear, Pantha du Prince to Rhythm and Sound. Electronic record of the year, just watch. [DG] (November 14, 2007)
LINER NOTES:
Of all the artists past and present who claim to let their music do their talking for them, Burial is one of the elite band of whom this truly is the case. In fact, so reluctant is he to engage with the cult-of-personality hoopla that surrounds almost every modern producer and musician of merit, that he remains a genuine recluse; he has never appeared live, only one obliquely-angled publicity photgraph is known to exist, and the number of interviews he has given can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Yet despite this, his music speaks loud and wide, and the world has been listening ever since his ‘South London Boroughs’ EP debut on Hyperdub in March 2005. His eponymous album, which began life as a low-key release in May 2006, is now widely regarded as the benchmark release of the ever-widening dubstep genre, picking up unanimous critical acclaim along the way, and ending the year heavily featured in many ‘best of’ polls.Now Burial returns with ‘Untrue’, a new record of weird soul music, which lovingly processes spectral female voices into vaporised R&B and smudged 2step garage. Vocal lines are blurred, smeared, pitched up pitched down and pitch bent until their content is cast adrift from their original context and they whisper their saccharin sweet nothings into the void. The album continues with the debut’s crackle-drenched yearning and bustling syncopations, haunted by the ghosts of rave, but also reveals some new Burial treats with a more glowing, upbeat energy. Kicking off with the skittering 2step syncopations and vocal science of ‘Archangel’, ‘Near Dark’ and ‘Ghost Hardware’, before long it descends into a space of radiant divas and ambience. Where ‘Burial’ first was humid, suffocating and unrelentingly sad, ‘Untrue’ is less sunless. Many of the tracks are so sweet, they become toxic, underscored by the almost geological rumbles of growling basslines. Unlike the overpoweringly melancholic prevailing mood of before, Burial’s sound is now better defined as a downcast euphoria typified by the epic, muted optimism of the album’s last track ‘Raver’. Forget central heating… the radioactivity of this album is all that you’ll need to keep you warm this winter.
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