Burial

(i dont like this much at all btw. tim's pitchfork review had me thinking it was the second coming of horsepower.)

Wow, I couldn't disagree more with these claims. Listen to Skream or DMZ if you want more fractured dubstep, that really isn't the point.

btw just to pre-empt dubstep (feeeel the bass man) purist

This there anyone seriously going to claim this? This is not a 'feel the bass' record, it's a shade away from a dubstep soundsystem track. It sounds perfectly fine on my home stereo.

But yes: Burial is in no way a bass-head record, whilst the sub-bass is present it is mixed well back, as there is quite a lot else going on. Check out Pinch for some real "holy shit that's a lot of sub down there" action...

I wasn't really thinking about it in that way but maybe I'd now say it is the second coming of horsepower and that's part of what undermines it slightly. I still love many tracks on In Fine Style but it's hard to listen to in full. HP were better rhythmic programmers than Burial I think (nothing here is as startling rhythmically as, say, "Pimp Flavours") but overall Burial has a broader sonic palette.

This is definitely the first time I've received e-mails about a review with half complaining that I was too enthusiastic and the other half that I was too negative.

All dubstep sounds fractured to me to a certain extent. Always tripping over itself and creating angular grooves. Skream falls into this paradigm for me - while he might sound non-jittery and so on, I think even 'Monsoon' or 'Request Line' would sound less so mixed into a different genre...

I agree, 'Boys Love Girls' is a 'fractured' sounding track. But it's such an exceptional record!

In any case, Burial is much more melodic and non-jittery than anything in dubstep or grime. The Germanic Basic Channel/Pole axis on the sound is an innovative approach I think. The point is to find a new synthesis, which requires reducing certain aspects associated with the London underground.

this shit sounds like enigma w/o the hot beats and tight samples. at least enigma is catchy and gets heads nodding. i forgot what this sounded like two seconds after i took it off. all i could remember was the afterimage of a train whistle, ghostly fragments of bad ethnic samples and the overwhelming aftertaste of rainswept windshields and sodium lights. fuck that, this is what you get when you combine corny dead poets gothisms + the sound of a deep forest album at 33 rpm.

Hmm... these are exactly the reasons why I love the record.

and STFU about basic channel, people. teh fact that a dubstep album spends time aiming for something that shits on it from a great height doesn't make it worth listening to.

burial is worthwhile because he namechecks basic channel? what's next, i listen to matisyahu because he's got good taste in reggae?

You can't be serious.

Perhaps Pole is a more significant reference point from Burial.

there, i said it. i feel better now. i'll get me hat.

So does anyone know if there's going to be any sound systems playing Dubstep at notting hill carnival this year?

Skream
Appleblim & Shackleton
Digital Mystikz & Sgt Pokes
Kode 9
Various Production

Yeah that break is fine, but that's about it. I don't dis-like the rest of it, it's just kind of there.

Aye.

but compare burial's album to something like phoenicia's "brownout" and you'll see that burial is very, very subpar.

-- Tim Finney, July 21st, 2006.

eh, crackle!

Fandango, regardless of your opinion on Burial, I really think you should hear SAW II. I'm tempted to say everyone should hear SAW II, but I do realize that's probably stretching it.

I would put all the vocal tracks ahead of it.

Oris Jay's "Brand Nu Flava" had a similar sick-with-love vibe. (sigh) so many of those producers went crap!

Also: check this out: Burial's remix of Jamie Woon's Wayfaring Stranger (fourth track here: http://www.myspace.com/jamiewoon ) - out at the end of this month on Live Recordings (has been played by Mary Anne Hobbs on Radio 1 a couple of times already, it seems).

Hype hype hype and then it turns out to be fantastic!

I had no idea. I could play Broken Home on repeat for hours... I really should have been paying more attention to this whole dubstep thing, but then there's only so much hours in the day and essays have to be handed in and I only get so much time off work and...

Still despite the fact that Death In June have nothing at all to do with the Burial this thread is dedicated to, I still stand by the album and look forward to the rumoured next Burial album due this year.