Favorite Song of the 00s: Burial - "Archangel"

Burial's sound is so distinctive and oft copied that one forgets sometimes how brilliant his early work truly is. On his second record, the masterful Untrue, single "Archangel" stands out more from an emotional standpoint than an aural one. The manipulated Ray J sample adds needed warmth and depth to what is generally a chilly atmosphere. Over a clopping 2-step beat, Burial seamlessly melds together ethereal synths, harsh bass, and the clipped sampled vocals that are twisted and turned into itself. The doubt over a relationship is made to feel tangible and real. This haunting track will linger long in your memory.

Album Review: Volor Flex - Unlit

Volor Flex
Unlit
Rating: Meh

Moscow producer Volor Flex (nee Alexander Frolov) must get tired of having every article/review about his music compare him the Burial. It certainly doesn't help that almost everything he has written could easily fit alongside the best of Untrue and there would be little speculation that it wasn't Burial himself. Fractured 2-Step beats, ghostly synths, lonely street noises, and pitch-shifted fragments of vocals strewn across the mix all play their part in Volor Flex's music, making the comparison's inevitable. Certainly, it doesn't help that you name your record very closely to that of Untrue. And while you can call him a Burial cover band or Burial v.2, there is still something here that compels me to listen to his work. Maybe I am missing the Burial of old, who has since moved on to more longer, intricate pieces, or maybe this is just simply catchy, good music. Whatever the reason, there is no denying that Volor Flex, while working from a derivative palate, still knows what he is doing, and is able to convey a lot of emotion into his music, and even occasionally comes up with his own unique take on the Burial template.

When he tries (whether or purpose or by accident) to put his own spin on the Burial sound is where Unlit finally shines and brings it out of mere aping. "Broken Promises" adds a darker, more industrial edged hue, sneaking in harsher vocal samples, rumbling sub-bass, and an overall sense of unease and panic. Closing track "My Universe" takes a longer run time (almost 10 minutes) and creates a universe that is decidedly un-Burialesque; inister basslines and shards of glassy synths bounce around on a shifting, skittering beat. When at the midpoint it takes a turn back towards Burial's signature sound, Volor Flex still has some tricks up his sleeve, teasing with an almost exact Burial beat, but dropping it out into pure ambient bliss.



"Stop Me" features harsher synth textures and tones, lifting itself from Burial's more street worn aesthetic to something more alien and sci-fi leaning.



While these moments demonstrate that Volor Flex can inject his personality into his tracks, the remainder on Unlit truly are working strictly from the Burial pattern. From the somber, moodiness of the title track "Unlit,"



pensive and claustrophobic layers of "Better Believe,"



to the almost paint-by-numbers Burial of opening track "Venus,"



there is not much room for argument that Volor Flex has a definite infatuation. He is a talented producer that knows how to create atmosphere and texture which makes it more surprising that he so slavishly relies on someone else's distinctive sound. It makes it difficult to recommend Unlit because part of me wants to say, if you want the better, more original version of this sound seek out Burial, but yet, these are not lazy reworkings, but rather very good approximations which stand out more when Volor Flex actually puts his own take on them out there. His work on "My Universe" alone warrants more attention. I can only hope he will keep trying to make something more original and distinctive. For now, we can only appreciate that he does something that someone else patented and produces a reasonably good facsimile thereof.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.

Album Review: Burial - Truant/Rough Sleeper

Burial
Truant/Rough Sleeper
Rating: Grrrr

Ever since his landmark album Untrue, William Bevan, a.k.a. Burial, has blazed his own trail, refusing to do anything by the numbers. Instead of following up with another full length album, Bevan has been slowly releasing EPs and singles, and collaborating with artists like Four Tet and Thom Yorke, taking his signature sound and subtly tweaking it. There are never any huge leaps into differing genres, his music is always distinctly Burial-sounding, but there is a greater focus on expanding and fleshing out his sound. On last year's Kindred EP, he basically created a suite of music from three tracks, two of which were well over 10 minutes in length, and moved effortlessly through many emotional highs and lows. Returning only 10 months later with the Truant/Rough Sleeper single, Bevan again plays with length, each of the tracks going over the 10 minute mark. These tracks, however, are fiercely experimental never staying long in one mood, not afraid to be ugly or harsh or off-putting.



Truant starts off as the most "Burial" sounding track. A shuffling beat, distant vocal samples, chimes, and lonely synth washes are unmistakably Bevan. About two minutes in, the vocal sample gets clearer, hauntingly crying out "I fell in love with you," while the beat slightly changes and harsh blasts of white noise interrupt the beauty. A full stop almost changes the track entirely, a ominous bassline creeps up while interesting clicks and background noises fight for dominance. Throughout the runtime, the track is unafraid to fold in on itself, strike in a different direction, then pull back into a former theme or motif. It's Bevan keeping the listener active in the process of listening. Not content to be mere wallpaper, you are constantly forced to reexamine the track and what it means. By the final two minutes of "Truant" the track is barely recognizable from the beginning, moving defiantly towards harshness, the clattering percussion, rumbling synths, and deep jazz bass line a far cry from the lonely ambiance of the first half. The track ends abruptly, segueing into the 14 minute "Rough Sleeper."



Again, starting on a low key note, "Rough Sleeper" rides along a lonely organ melody, the delicate two step beat prodding it along. Again, Bevan uses more interesting background noises: disjointed sax samples, brutally chopped up vocals, a penchant for dropping the track out entirely. And again, morphs and wraps the track around on itself. While this disjointedness can be antagonistic at times, there always is a method to Bevan's madness. The middle portion of the track is perhaps some of the most breathtaking music he has ever produced. The beat becomes more insistent, vocal samples marry perfect to the mix of subtle electronics and rising chimes, with all the other disparate elements from before coming together. The back portion of the track again changes course, the beats dropping out momentarily before a new synth melody arises and a choppier two step beat emerges through the fog. Just as you are lulled into the track the programming becomes more frenzied, a white noise threatening to overwhelm before the track cuts out abruptly.

Truant/Rough Sleeper has almost too much going on throughout its 25 minutes, but somehow Bevan keeps everything in place. It's admirable that he chose not to remake Untrue over and over again, putting out music when he wants and as he wants. At this point, I am not concerned that he has yet to put a full length out. His ability to convey so much with his longer form singles just adds more depth to his catalog, and if he continues in this vein, it will be enough for me.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.

Burial: Kindred EP - Review

Burial
Kindred EP
Rating: Woof Daddy

Though we know a little more about 2-step master Burial, aka Will Bevan, since the release of his landmark album Untrue, he has not been quick to capitalize on his fame and influence by releasing a ton of music. We've only gotten a couple of collaborations with Four Tet and Thom Yorke, and last year's stunning Street Halo EP. And those releases have stuck fairly uniformly with the Burial aesthetic, with minor variations that still seem to evoke the typical Burial sound while still advancing his sound. Scheduled to be released last year, but held up by production issues, Kindred is the latest teaser from Burial. While not a full album of material, indeed, Burial seems less than in a hurry to come out with another full length, Kindred's three tracks, which are longer and denser, take up almost 30 minutes of run time, and, in fact, show a new side to his sound, while still retaining the "Burial" trademarks. While pitch-shifted vocal samples still play a role in Burial's world, the are not the focus here, simply becoming another element in the mix. What is most striking about these tracks, aside from their length (two tracks edge the 12 minutes mark while one is almost 8 minutes), is the density and pure weight of what is going on. Burial's previous work was all about atmosphere, while here, the tracks become all about texture.

Lead and title track "Kindred" is the most "Burial" sounding of the three, retaining the trademark kick and block drum sound, but instead of it being in the front of the mix, it is pushed far in the back, letting the ominously brutal bass line take over, haunting wafts of choral synths hovering in the distance, the vocal sample insistent and choked up. Over the 11+ minutes, Burial brings in an almost symphonic attention to detail and pacing. In fact, the three tracks together almost make up a symphony in their pacing and structure. "Kindred" begins in standard Burial style with angelic synths and blocky beats before the grime and ash take over, the buzzing bass line smearing its gloom over the beats. There is a muscularness here that has been heretofore unseen, instead of feeling like a passive listener, traveling silently through urban streets, you feel like your feet are on the pavement, the danger around you, the clipped vocal samples are either the passers-by around you or the voices in your head. Again, Burial is a master at letting pauses and silences speak volumes. The final movement of the track breaks through the grime and darkness, a lighter synth pattern emerges alongside a more ethereal vocal sample.



Probably most shocking on Kindred is Burial moving on from his trademarked beat plan. Second track "Loner" is akin to Dylan going electric when Bevan moves the track up to 130 BPM. There is a bit of a fake out at first, with the opening bars featuring an almost Eno-esque ambient quality, before Bevan shoves an almost house beat in the mix. The track is quite subtle. Echoing vocal samples, which recall some of the vocals from This Mortal Coil's first record, burst in an out of a dense fog of atmospheric effects, arpeggiated synths rising and falling against a throbbing bass pulse. The drums dropping out occasionally, letting the other layers swirl around until jacking the beats back up again. It is the kind of track that definitely "sounds" like Burial but is also completely unlike him.



But nothing quite prepares you for the tour de force that is the final track, "Ashtray Wasp." Over a brilliant 11:30 minute plus run time, the track takes the listener on a chaotic journey, from fear, danger and loneliness, to a final sense of calm. He trades his blocky beats for a steam pulse with the vocal samples striking a gorgeous chord over the swirling mass of synths. The mid section of the track getting more agitated, the samples becoming more clipped and ambiguous, with Burial even drawing attention back to his work on Untrue with what sounds like a synth sample from that epic work, until the track rights itself again back into the swirling mist. Just when you think the track will continue in slight variations on this theme, the track basically drops out completely and morphs into a delicate piano based number with overlying clipped vocal samples that keep the track askew and haunting. What begins as a trip through hell becomes an arrival in bliss.



Kindred is an amazing continuation of the art that Burial makes. Instead of minute changes, he is going full out with pushing his sound to greater and more deeper meaning. These three tracks stay with you for hours, their pulse and haunting melodies lingering in the blood stream. In the 24 hours I have been listening to this record, my hand keeps reaching back to press repeat. Once these tracks have been ingrained in your body, there is no way to resist their pull.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.

Burial: "Street Halo"

It has been over 4 years since the release of Burial's seminal album Untrue. Since then, he has kept a relatively low profile, remixing some artists, producing some tracks on Jamie Woon's upcoming album Mirrorwriting, and releasing some collaborative tracks with Four Tet and Thom Yorke. Then today, a mysterious press release came out from his label Hyperdub announcing the release of a new single "Street Halo," to be released on Monday, March 28. The single will also come with two additional songs: "NYC" and "Stolen Dog." There is no word whether this is a lead up to a new album, however, the rumor is that he has been working on it lately. Check back Monday and I will likely have a clip and review of the single.

Below is the amazing song "Archangel" from Untrue.