burial; a phoenix.
With my recent, previous reblog and the release of the Burial & Four Tet & Thom Yorke collaboration, it must be restated; Burial is quite possibly the most important electronic music producer in the world today.
Hyperdub is releasing a 20 minute single disc, split into three respective songs, of which you can hear two prior to this next week, where it will be out there and ready to buy, steal or commandeer as you like. From having followed Burial for a few years now, I am quite surprised to hear the progression of initial radio rips that surfaced in the past to the completed, beautiful whole that this record sounds to be. There are hints of his previous unreleased works being cycled through this music and as usual, Burial has managed to create detail and a whole room full of mood in these songs. Everything feels clear and confident, gorgeous in its simplicity and bursting with brilliant, colorful synthesis.
There are definitely new sounds here, new detail, a clear intent to move further and develop a larger sonic pallet. As I’ve discussed many times before, growth and change can oftentimes alienate listeners from musicians. But here, it’s exciting to listen to a new Burial, where it is still his sound, his style, with new voices to further articulate whatever journey this young man is going to take us on. Frankly I am quite excited for the trip.
In a rare interview a few years back, Burial confessed the last two records were done entirely in Soundforge, a notoriously difficult to use DAW, on a computer that Burial laughingly stated was dying slowly and it was his intention to work in this difficult environment to get out whatever he could, to simply see what that toolset would render. Electronic music as science project, with a simple hypothesis: “What can I do with these tools?” In his new work, it sounds like he’s working on a new computer, a new DAW (I am betting Cubase) and a profound new series of samples/sound design patches. Here is Burial, reinvented, working in an environment that is much more forgiving, much more friendly. As a result, the sound feels fresh, exciting and beautiful, but still dark and completely south london, once again you can even hear the rain.
As we have seen artists progress to new productivity environments, like say for instance, Crystal Method, who started out with a massive collection of synths and ditched them for Reason, Ableton Live and the like, we’ve heard them lose something, get lazy and the original low end- provided by default from the synths they used to use- sadly missing. In that, we find their soul, was their hardware. Here, with Burial, we now know his talent is housed completely in his hands and synapse. Dare I say, even in his heart.
In the radio rips listed below in my blog, there comes the inevitable question, “Will there be a new Burial Record this year?” Kode9, head of Hyperdub, answers simply with “don’t know.” One can only hope that burial doesn’t burn through 2011 with only 20 or so minutes of output. He is much, much too brilliant for that. Although, in the end, his inner pursuit of perfection is quite a thing to be patient for.
Keep listening and I do apologize for the lack of posting, I aim to remedy that situation with this post and more to follow with all due haste.
_backchat.
