William Bevan aka Burial came as so much of a surprise in 2006 that it really stunned huge loads of people (I was one of them). The album was voted by many magazines in their Best of lists, not that it means anything anyway. The world was just getting to know a new musical idea called Dubstep and it was rocking the dancefloors all around the world starting from it's birthplace UK. Mary Anne Hobbs was constantly pushing on at BBC Radio One with new names, new releases. Burial came amidst this flourishing scene with a totally different approach, he combined IDM with Dubstep, mixed a little Trip Hop, House, Ambient and brought forth not the danceable, but absolutely admirable type of Dubstep. Benga, Skream, Coki, Kode9, Rusko, Caspa, and many others were rocking all around, yet Burial was ruling.
Fron then on, the Dubstep world took two views, one that wanted to shake the dancefloors with round and powerful basses, the other mildly playing, but more sustainable approach. The first one also merged with Grime and has now slowly turned it's head towards Hard House and Trance, so it is safe to say that it pretty much wrapped itself.
On the other hand Burial and the likes are taking other directions while trying to broaden the aspects they can stick to. He is mingling with Trip Hop, House, Ambient, Nu Jazz and of course IDM.
Kindred is the new release of Burial from Hyperdub Records. There are three tracks on the single. "Kindred" is on the A side and it is a classic Burial style of track and very effective. It is to my utmost happiness that he can still create similar tracks without falling into obvious repetitions. Actually I cannot say that he is playing safe like many other artists. He has been extremely powerful in this (Ambient x Dubstep)/2 approach that he can still use it and create passion within the listener.
B side starts with "Loner". This is for me an unfortunate edition to the album. In one way, it reminds me to the Minimal House works of Apparat, but it certainly lacks the quality. It has a Trancelike rhythm and sticks to it. Maybe it would be productive for him to collaborate with Apparat in this sense to get more hold of this style as well. Apparat's collaboration with Modeselektor (Under the name Moderat) has brought forth tons of lovely fruits and this may be another reason for my thinking.
B2 is "Ashtray Wasp" and it has a majorly different approach since in it's core, the track is not Dubstep. It is not even broken beats. I guess it is one of the trials of Burial to find himself a pathway to take. Vocals and the general structure of the track does not stray far from Burial's trademark structure, while the foundation is totally different. The track is OK, feels like a change. I can't say I liked it a lot since this one also has the Trancelike mediocre melody as "Loner". As the track seems to be ending, I then find out that this has just been sort of an intro. There is a small gap a whole new structure pops out of nowhere. I don't know if this is a hidden track since it certainly feels like so. It is much more enlightening than the other two on this side of the record. The music turns into Burialism. I have no idea what's gotten into Burial's head. However, I can say that this 3-4 minute track (Or Ashtray Wasp's Outro) is absolutely refreshing on my nerves. Burial is acting like himself, trying things, looking from other directions, checking what is outside the box. This is why he has been so immensely followed during the last couple of years.
To buy this record:
@ Bleep
@ Juno
@ Boomkat
@ Discogs
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