New Burial album. More info?

Concerning that 7digital download I bought: it's a DRM protected WMA file, which I didn't know in advance (I wouldn't have bothered then), but the "license this file" button (which only works in Internet Explorer because they use some ActiveX crap) doesn't do anything. Why it doesn't work, I have no idea, I only know I've paid for something I can't listen to. No idea how I can solve this either, there's no help on there for when the button doesn't work.

I didn't really feel much of the first one but I'm loving this. More vocal snippets = a good thing in by book.

i dunno man, demoting todd the god to an archangel seems a little rude.

yeah this is def better than the first one, though he does still seem to a lot of the old windtunnel brrrrrm and then i dunno, echo woodblocking his 2steps so they sound like footsteps. but yknow i have tried to clear my mind and let myself fall under burial's alleged spell, and then i resd something like this

i wonder why he changed the original 'homeless' to 'dog shelter' and called another tune 'homeless' ???

-- pollywog

and how am i not supposed to crease up? truly dread to think of the sheer acreage of skunk i'd have to get through before my face got as po as some's.

I hadn't noticed that, perhaps because I'd been spending so long wondering why there are two tracks called 'Untitled'.

Yay, 7digital solved the problem & I've got the Bloc Party wma now. I know it's still pretty new, but I think I can safely say that for the second year in a row, a Burial remix is my favourite track of the year.

Hmm yes all the Burial crit keeps on piling up in front of Burial's music barring the way.

In retrospect I think what allowed me to embrace Horsepower Productions' genteel garage so wholeheartedly 5/6 years ago was the fact that even then very few people had cottoned on to the notion of taking any garage that seriously, and even yr Hyperdubs had a much more clear-headed approach to writing about the stuff.

i dont like this anywhere near as much as the first album so far. he seems to be trying to make his music more danceable this time or use more conventional 2 step rhythms so half the album seems stuck with virtually the exact same drum programming on every song. which is fine, but it leaves this kinda between home listening and a very weird sort of more conventional 2 step production style, without really satisfying either side. he was more inventive IMO when he had fractured 2 step programming, rather than trying to go UKG-proper. apart from that, it just doesnt seem as affecting as the last one. arch angel isnt as good as people keep saying, mainly cos the vocals (which are a bit shit to begin with) are so clean - it doesnt fit the music right. the vocals only really work when he manipulates and fucks around with them a bit, and layers and cuts them into the track directly. maybe my opinion will change when i hear it a few more times but it seems to use a lot of techniques/familiar sounds from the last one, just not as effectively.

"Are you from the planet Assclown?"

are you kode 9?

Hugely superior to the first album. What isn't hugely superior is the fact that the vinyl is badly pressed. http://dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=31755&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

I would be legitimately annoyed about this if I hadn't bought it from a shop where one of my best mate's works and so I won't be ridiculed for returning a Burial album because it's "hissy".

- apostrophe after mate

oh yeah the vocals...

...cut em up randomly in 'recycle' spread em over your keyboard and play them manually in real time using your pitch shift wheel, record and add effects

good plan bitch.

oh yeah the vocals...

...cut em up randomly in 'recycle' spread em over your keyboard and play them manually in real time using your pitch shift wheel, record and add effects

sometimes the effect is haunting and beautiful... (shell of light)

... other times not so much. (first half of near dark)

i do think the vocals are too prominent in this album. if i was a cynical guy i'd say he read too many of his own reviews and went for what he thought people liked best about the first one.

just my initial impressions - i still need to listen to this more. somehow it seems kind of formulaic and less... "deep" than the first album to me.

good plan bitch.

^^^i bet u suck a mean dick...

...maybe shoulda got spaceape in to vocalise some shit and given his vox the treatment

I try but I just cant listen to more than 2 of his trax in a row if i'm actually listening (it's them bloody drums aaaaarrrrrrrrrggghhh) but to have it loop in the background continuously makes it like one loooooong song that i kind of like...

...gotta be sum remixes coming out pleeeease

"i do think the vocals are too prominent in this album. if i was a cynical guy i'd say he read too many of his own reviews and went for what he thought people liked best about the first one.

just my initial impressions - i still need to listen to this more. somehow it seems kind of formulaic and less... "deep" than the first album to me.

-- rockapads"

nah, id say he was just trying to copy the shit out of Groove Chronicles "Stone Cold" which incidentily you can hear on El-B's myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/ghostrecordings

i mean, this album is blatantly an abstracted version of that track right there. as it is my favorite 2-step jam, that is all good with me. i wouldnt say it is formulaic, id say that he just stuck to a more obvious song structure, and even within that he did some nice things (the false ending of "untrue", the off timing on things coming in on "raver", etc) to trick it out. i would say that this one is more "deep" than the first one, though.....

<i>nah, id say he was just trying to copy the shit out of Groove Chronicles "Stone Cold" which incidentily you can hear on El-B's myspace page:</i>

Well that ties in with my theory that Burial is EL-B anyway. EL B = Bury EL. Buck & Bury, ghost hardware, stone cold dead and buried... I mean c'mon ???

And in his last interview he said he wishes he were a ghost. The anonymously ressurected ghost of 2 step ..:)

If Burial was El-B you'd have to assume his drums and basslines would be better...

"i do think the vocals are too prominent in this album."
"somehow it seems kind of formulaic and less... "deep" than the first album"

OTM.

i dont think his drums or basslines are meant to be 'better', the rickety, weird, distant quality he gives them is intentional. otherwise it would just sound like normal or 'proper' garage.

^^^exactly...

Burial is the ghost of EL-B :)

I think its more likely he wishes he was El-B.

And even El-B's ghost would engineer better drum sounds than he does.

Its far more likely that this is some random friend of Steve and Martin's who just likes his privacy.

If its incredibly subtle marketing I'm gonna be pissed.

The 30 second samples make this sound more upbeat and more vocal-driven than his first, not so unrelentingly dark....is that true of the album? (I'm sure I could read this thread and glean that, but wtvs.)

"i dont think his drums or basslines are meant to be 'better', the rickety, weird, distant quality he gives them is intentional. otherwise it would just sound like normal or 'proper' garage."

ha ha the problem though titchy is that Burial's beats do sound like normal or 'proper' garage - just a slightly weak and generic version of same (though this may be a slight improvement over just badly programmed earlier tracks like "Southern Comfort"), and recorded from a room down the hall. El-B's Ghost releases were much more avant in the rhythm section.

I'm not really trying to criticize Burial, who i think is often excellent - it's just that his skills lie elsewhere.

I thought we established ages ago that he's JX?

youre right tim w/r/t to this new album - it sounds like hes trying to make more normal 2step but failing terribly. he needs to go back to making abstracted 2 step rather than 2 step proper. it sounds wrong in his hands. i hope this isnt the road hes going to try and go down more.

lol@recorded from a room down the hall. hes like the garage ariel pink.

"Buri" Al Yankovich

i cant listen to the first half of his album too much. bit too repetitive. its like one long track that goes on until track 6.

I'm sort of surprised people are treating this as anything other than an ambient record that happens to be influenced by 2-step.

well, the first one WAS really moving. this one though is a bit ersatz and direction-less.

Just you wait until you happen to listen to it in the right place/time/state of mind. (it suddenly clicked for me, maybe it can still do so for you)

"well, the first one WAS really moving. this one though is a bit ersatz and direction-less.

-- titchyschneiderMk2"

after listening to this new one more and more, i feel the exact same way. except about the opposite albums. the space ape track on the first one always irritated me, i would skip it basically every time i listened. and the shortness of the ambient cuts always made me want more. it now feels like he had something to say, but wasnt quite there yet. now i feel like is is really there, he found the direction and really made a much better listening ALBUM.

HATED the Space Ape track on the first album. Although the Kode 9 and Space Ape album is mostly marvellous.

The Spaceape track on Burial was my favourite by far. Would love to more Burial with an MC, just like I always preferred ukg with rappers like that MJ Cole Roots Manuva track.

.... but the Roots Manuva remix isn't even very good!

At least shore up your argument by referring to an actual bona fide garage-rap classic!

would love to hear an entire genre like the shy fx remix of pd syndicate's "ruff like we"

we'll call it "thugstep"

j/k

i like the bloc party remix a lot.

<quote>At least shore up your argument by referring to an actual bona fide garage-rap classic!</quote>

I was the biggest so solid and oxide/neutrino fan...

...nothing to do with burial, just thought I'd mention that

fuck did those fellas have some mean ass beats and vids...

"fuck did those fellas have some mean ass beats and vids..."

ang tite mr shabz ;)

admittedly, i know nothing about Burial and always sort of was like, "those crazy britishes."

but "Archangel" has been stuck in my head since i dl'ed from a blog a week or two back, and uh....i really kinda like this?

admittedly, i know nothing about Burial and always sort of was like, "those crazy britishes."

...he's the latest bit of fad music for all the jaded ravers and music crits who came though the the last 25 yrs and have now realised the british music industry ran out of ideas, realised the drugs don't work anymore and the music dosn't really stand up on its own without them

the anonymity represents the underground that doesn't exist for people to move into the mainstream light from anymore so you're better of staying wherever you are...

...it's all a bit sad really and you must understand burial in the overall evolution of the 'hardcore contuinuum' out of london and in relation to kode 9's hyperstitious beliefs otherwise you're not seeing the big picture

or you could just listen to it and think 'eh whats all the fuss about ?'...he's got some nice bits he's got some shit bits

"...it's all a bit sad really and you must understand burial in the overall evolution of the 'hardcore contuinuum' out of london and in relation to kode 9's hyperstitious beliefs otherwise you're not seeing the big picture

-- pollywog"

hmm, i dont agree at all, actually. i think it helps to understand where any music comes from and its place in other music (hardcore continuum is such a ridiculous idea, hardcore didnt come from nowhere, it came from house and techno and hiphop, which all came from disco, which came from soul and r+b and blues and tribal drumming..... etc etc etc). but sometimes, a record just touches people. and this new record seems to be one of those. it is so far beyond its genre limitations, people who could give a fuck about jungle or 2-step or dubstep can immediately feel what the guy is trying to do. you can hate on that and look stupid, or you can just appreciate the fact that the man made a hell of a record.

'hardcore continuum' was just a catch-all to describe the progression of underground dance music strictly emanating from the UK (obv having been influenced from elsewhere) since people in London started making hip-hop no?

i only really like the second, third tracks and last tracks plus most of the beatless bits inc 'In Mcdonalds' esp. the bit where the sample of the girl vocal drifts in which captures the 'vaporous anima like the smokemonster from Lost drifting through this reality alive, awake but only partially aware at any specific moment in time' perfectly.

I think more specifically "hardcore continuum" refers to the relationship between that development and a particular audience - i.e. the notion that you had a population of listeners/participants who could be loosely defined in socioecomic/ethnic/geographic terms and could be traced from 'ardkore through jungle through speed garage through 2-step to grime (dubstep and bassline possibly fall outside this in the same way that the last 8 years or so of drum & bass do).

The irony about Burial is that he superficially genuflects towards this ideal but his music lacks the rudeboy element that I think is common to all those moments. Hence the critical line from those who take the notion seriously is that Burial "mourns" the "death" of this music.

It's a take on the music I disagree with - it might have had some credence if the music was made specifically by and for Dissensus readers but it seems pretty clear to me that the appeal of this music to much of its audience (who, as pipecock says, don't necessarily know 2-step etc.) is precisely that it lacks that sort of rudeboy element (by which I mean both roughness and pop irreverence, and more besides).

I should note that what i'm saying should be construed narrowly - I'm not saying this music is bad or that it would only appeal to people who don't or wouldn't like 2-step. Rather, that its appeal is based on these points of distinction.

anyone fancy a pint?

"The irony about Burial is that he superficially genuflects towards this ideal but his music lacks the rudeboy element that I think is common to all those moments. Hence the critical line from those who take the notion seriously is that Burial "mourns" the "death" of this music.

It's a take on the music I disagree with - it might have had some credence if the music was made specifically by and for Dissensus readers but it seems pretty clear to me that the appeal of this music to much of its audience (who, as pipecock says, don't necessarily know 2-step etc.) is precisely that it lacks that sort of rudeboy element (by which I mean both roughness and pop irreverence, and more besides).

-- Tim F"

im not sure that the rudeboy element as you put it is all that spot on either, though. sure, there was always a little of that (aphrodite, dj hype, etc) but there was also a ton of stuff that really had nothing to do with that perspective (cloud 9/nookie, peshay, photek, ltj bukem, etc). for me, i love both sides of the coin in both genres, 2-step and jungle, but it is all the same thing! and burial's music is mainly a tribute to one side more than the other. look at goldie or a guy called gerald, both had something of the rudeboy to them but their music didnt really have that edge when they made the records that influenced Burial.

I know what you mean but I think you're misinterpreting me a bit - I'm not saying that all the records in these genres were fundamentally rudeboy, but what inhered in the transition from one genre to the next was the rudeboy element.

Nor am I saying that Burial's music is not influenced by all of these genres or that he's not paying tribute to people that have gone before him - rather, that whatever he's paying tribute to it's not "the hardcore continuum" as such. Anyway it's not as if this notion is self-evident to anyone who listens to all this music.

(OTOH I think that's a bit of a mischaracterisation of Goldie and A Guy Called Gerald. Remember that at the same time that Goldie was making Timeless he was also making "VIP Rider's Ghost" and "Saint Angel" and some great slamming remixes. And A Guy Called Gerald made some awesome hardsteppy, proto-techstep tracks.)

But anyway the whole point with jungle/drum & bass is that (according to "hardcore continuum" orthodoxy) it was moving towards a moment of internal rupture between people who wanted to stay true to that inherent flavour even if it meant abandoning the genre outright, and people who stayed loyal to "drum and bass" as such.

2-step never went through such a split, and I think you'd be hard-pressed to come up with a prominent producer who didn't stay true to that rudeboy flavour to some degree.