Description
Label Review.
Despite not releasing an album since Untrue (2007), acclaimed producer Burial has release a string of EPs since then and he has compiled a 150 minute selection from these across two discs.
Our Overview.
Topping off Hyperdub’s 15th year, Burial selects ‘tunes’ from the last eight years of his EP releases on the label, for this very welcome two CD collection. Sequenced by Burial, ‘Tunes 2011-2019’ shows the depth and brilliance of his post-‘Untrue’ development; from long, twisting, collage works which travel through unexpected zones, to a more pointed, poppier side, and back again to the haunted, open horizons of his beatless pieces.
Emerging from South London in the mid-2000s, William Bevan aka Burial was introduced to the UK rave scene by his older brothers and became a fan of jungle and garage. When he began producing his own tunes he quickly developed his own unique style and was soon picked up by the indie label Hyperdub, who issued his debut EP in 2005 and album the following year. The album in particular drew many plaudits including album of the year in Wire magazine. At the time, his real identity was a secret and after his second album ‘Untrue’ won him a Mercury Music Prize nomination, mainstream newspapers got in on the act to try and find out his real identity. Bevan himself revealed his true identity soon after the nomination.
Since then however, Burial has not released a third album, concentrating instead on EPs and remixes for the likes of Massive Attack (once a whole remix album was rumoured), Thom Yorke, Bloc Party, and Goldie among others.
Derek Walmsley of The Wire said: “Burial decided at the outset to avoid at all costs the rigid, mechanistic path that eventually brought drum ‘n’ bass to a standstill. To this end, his percussion patterns are intuitively arranged on the screen rather than rigidly quantized, creating minute hesitations and slippages in the rhythm. His snares and hi-hats are covered in fuzz and phaser, like cobwebs on forgotten instruments, and the mix is rough and ready rather than endlessly polished. Perhaps most importantly, his basslines sound like nothing else on Earth. Distorted and heavy, yet also warm and earthy, they resemble the balmy gust of air that precedes an underground train.”