Burial
Untrue (2007)
eatdogs
“That Burial guy…”
I have a lot of respect for William Bevan, a.k.a. Burial. I
guess I respect his space and almost shadow self. He is like a shadow, or
vapor. His presence is still mysterious to all despite him releasing a few pics
to prove he is real. His secluded nature and desire to be alone is what gets to
me. I used to want that persona. In these times, it is remarkable how he is
still able to slip by and you not know it.
The result from that sort of hermit-minded self is this
music here…
I remember 2007. A lot happened for me in my life that year.
I had my first visit to California, I was making the best grades in my life
while in college, and my self-harming depression had not kicked into full gear
just yet. Somewhere in that time, Burial released his second full-length album Untrue and it was a call to arms in that
later part of the decade. Its inspiration, about to become legendary.
I will not go into full detail on what makes this album the
cult classic that it is. There is too much of a hill to climb in order to get the
full amount, but we can take some brief glimpses.
For what’s it worth, this is an album of Electronic music.
The music itself spans several micro-genres in the Electronic scene and the
list goes like this: Grime, Drum n’ Bass, Two-Step, Garage, Jungle and Trip-Hop.
Hip-Hop and Rn’B also slip in. The culmination of all those styles results in
the Burial sound and what is now determined to be forever called, Dubstep. The
thing is you cannot pigeonhole this into Dubstep. It is way beyond that.
Some cringe when they hear the term Dubstep. I will not
argue with that reaction. However, just know this music is on another plain.
Artists with a cult following are interesting to observe.
Fans wait with baited breath, ready to pounce on whatever the artist releases
next whether it be art, film, writings, or in this case, music. I admit I am a
diehard fan and have gone the crazy route of acquiring everything this man has
done on vinyl. I haven’t done much OCD collecting for other things except when
searching for old prints of Battle Angel
Alia comics and retro NES and SNES games.
What makes this album so unique these ten years later is how
it evokes a particular time and place, this instance being in the UK in the new
millennium post 911 and the end of the Bush era. Think back then to now and
Burial’s icy music still resonates with the atmosphere of those walking home at
night in the cold and seeking shelter from the outside world. Sometimes we all
want to escape into ourselves. Burial’s music helped people move like that.
The 13 tracks on this album are each a snapshot of perhaps
the nighttime, or a smoke filled room. There is a haze here, an almost claustrophobic
dankness that swelters off the floors and ceilings. This is the music of some
rundown club, or a dirty taxi in the AM’s. Drunkenness, stoned, frightened,
depressed, sick, it all complements the other in these tunes.
Burial isn’t really a particular genre. He is just Burial.
His name alone is enough for people to say, “Yeah, him…” There is no other artist I can think of that sounds like
Burial, and if so, it’s because they are trying to sound like him. The problem
with that is they cannot comprehend the originality on display here. This could
only come from Burial’s mind alone.
The sound is scratchy, lo-fi in some spots, but also
euphoric and has a wide wealth of atmospheric ambient sounds. There are samples
to be found and if you want to know what those are there is an internet hive
mind of folks who have hard lined information dumps about who and what is sampled
here. The sound is continuous in its rhythm, but then it does an immediate
changeup and gears switched to a more syrupy drone that would not be out of
line on a Massive Attack album. The use of female vocal samples also give this
album a more feminine feel which was intentional and a greater departure from
his self-titled debut LP which sounded more like Proto-Dubstep and Grime in the
vein of producers like Horsepower Productions, Mala, Kode-9, and Skream.
Standout songs I suggest to check out are “Archangel”, “Ghost
Hardware”, “In McDonald’s”, “Shell of Light”, and the title track.
Any review for this album is almost a disservice to the
artist because the music itself speaks loudly and it is all right here in front
of you to hear. It can either grab you or not. This is just a brief ten-year
reflection on Untrue but now as I write
this I can remember driving around downtown Oklahoma City one night and seeing
the lights splay by like I was in Koyaanisqatsi
while my cigarette smoke filtered out the crack of my windows and Burial’s
music played on 11.
Dig it.