The enigmatic Burial is about to release his second album Untrue on November 5th. Personally, I wasn’t exactly sold on the self-titled debut but it was easy to recognise that it was something different, discombobulated, mesmerising dubstep landscape that sounded like nothing else yet reminded me of dark dystopian nights soundtracked and Future Sound of London ambient albums. He has described the second album as “downcast euphoria, as opposed to just downcast like on the first one.”
His anonymity is his strength. All we know is that is he is from London, is friends with producer Kode 9, does not appear live, makes all his tunes using Soundforge and little else but his deep imagination. He’s an intriguing character especially considering the accolades and fervour he incites that led to The Wire calling his debut album of the year.
So it’s with that proviso that I present to you an album preview mix by Kode 9 which was played on Mary Anne Hobbs show on Wednesday. Hobb’s inane worshipping ramblings are a symptom of something which could befall Burial. Due to his reclusiveness and mysterious producer status, through no fault of his own, his music and his persona run the risk of being labelled as a unquestionable musical genius.
Hobbs is prone to dropping hyperbolic clangers every now and again. Her championing of dubstep and the subsequent release of last year’s Warrior Dubz compilation has positioned her as patron of the genre. So her adulation of Burial’s work manifests itself in the introduction and follow-up comments on the mix. She claims it is “without question, the most wonderful mosiac of sound I’ve heard in my entire life“, “a work of art”, “a transmission from a star in a galaxy far far away” and that “life and sound will never be the same again“.
As a listener, all this does is serve to put the music on a plateau. If you’re not feeling it, there must be something wrong with you, you’re musically challenged. Criticising it means you just don’t get it. Though you can’t fault her love of Burial, I feel like quoting Dans le Sac vs Scroobius Pip to her.
“Thou shalt not put musicians and recording artists on ridiculous pedestals no matter how great they are or were.”
It’s hilarious stuff and you can hear it below. It’s unfortunate that this kind of pantomime surrounds the mix as it sounds intriguing. I implore you to make up your own mind about it. Ignore the hype but do let me know what you think.
MP3
Burial album preview – mixed by Kode 9
[audio:https://nialler9.com/mp3/burial_album_preview_mixed_by_kode_9.mp3]
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
i hereby christen the unit for measuring the extent of hyperbole in sentences “the hobb”
the shite above comes in a 8.7 hobbs.
look forward to listening to the tunes
I’d give it 9.3 hobbs. jeeez.
Fact Magazine carried a relatively rare interview with Burial last week…
http://www.factmagazine.co.uk/da/61991
I masterbated whilst listening to that mix, seriously i wouldnt be surprised if it can cure cancer
But seriously…i prefered Kode9’s mix for the first album. Came together much more coherently as a mix in itself whereas this sounds more like something you’d send to a record company as a promo. That said the individual snippets of tracks sound pretty damn good. I think a lot of people will find the vocals cheesy though. We’ll see….
On hype, I was having a discussion earlier today on the hype surrounding Ricardo Vilalobos after reading this article http://music.guardian.co.uk/electronic/story/0,,2178449,00.html. I’ve never fully got Vilalobos. He is talked up as some kind of complete genius and as you said Niall I was starting to wonder if I was somehow ‘musically challenged’ but the simple fact is I just don’t feel it and if you aint feelin it especially after numerous listens then fuck it. With journalist like Hobbs I think there is a certain kind of intellectual snobbery where journalists are trying to out do each other in their praise of certain artists. You might call it the pitchforkmedia syndrome!
On Burial, I personally loved the self titled debut album. It wasn’t the type of album you’d listen to before heading out on a Saturday night but it could make the trip into town on a damp Thursday evening feel almost other-worldly. Now whoes being pretentious 🙂
I felt the same way as you about Villalobos for a while, PMC, but then I stopped and now I really like him.
The praise surrounding him is sort of over the top, mainly because people outside techno (or dubstep) will always latch onto the most marketable acts who fit rock/indie ways of appraisal (in this case, auteurism)
The same is true of someone like Modeselektor, you see them constantly praised outside techno because people want to praise stuff which can be sold as cutting edge.
I guess the difference for me with Villalobos is when I actually began listening quite intently to his stuff I really found myself enjoying it.
Also Villalobos’s actual music isn’t really pretentious at all….I ignored “Fizeheuer Ziheuer” for ages because I was sick to the teeth of hearing how it was 38 mins long omg! But when I heard it I realised how wacky and what a party record it was.
Also worth adding Villalobos as a DJ is pretty amazing too and very different than producing, that’s the source of a lot of the worship too.
good blog. you know your shit.
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i have to disagree with co. Hobbs is the queen of understatement!
Yeah definitely agree with the comments on MAH going over the top. I really like the Burial stuff because it incorporates 2-step, which never took off in Dublin but I was always a fan of it, and its great to see people getting into these days, even if the Burial material is a lot darker and more Basic Channel oriented than the likes of Zed Bias or Steve Gurley. But its hardly worthy of the stuff she’s coming out with.