After hearing the Bleep preview of "Etched Headplate," I am now frantically searching for this one to see if I can put it on the pod for the drive to work. I'm excited about this one. His first album was so, so good. Never heard anything like it.
Infinite E wrote:didn't have you down as a dubstep fan thedisavowed.
Well, the only dubstep I own is Burial's self-titled. Do you know other dubstep/grime records I should hear? I'm all ears (NO PUN INTENDED). Of course.. maybe there's a thread about this already... either way!
Having said that, dubsteps' a very dancefloor-oriented genre and Burial is in a boat of his/her/their own imo. I'm not sure I can think of anything with those ambient elements and introspective type of atmosphere... that's what really marked it out for me in the first place
"Now son, don't worry, those were just lies Daddy told to get prescription drugs"
yeah Burial's pretty unique. some of his beats remind me of James Holden's crazyrhythms. But also this album is very UK garage influenced am i right Infinite?
It took me a while to get into Burial's first album but i'm so glad i gave his stuff another chance. i've been listening to untrue all day. it's simply the best album of the year. solid all around.
When listening with headphones it has a nice atmosphere, once I listen with the speakers the atmosphere is gone...
I know there is a difference when listening in another setting but never before it was this much. Must be the voices that give the album depth and aren't very noticable when listening with speakers.
I know what you mean about the headphones. I played it in the shop and it doesn't work as background music at all. It does still, however, sound wonderfully atmospheric on my home setup over the speakers at a decent volume.
Call me a fool.. but I just don't "get" Burial. I've listened to both albums (Burial and Untrue) and kept finding myself looking at iTunes wondering when it would be over.
Makes me think about my post in the "holyfuck" thread. Wondering if I should have even recommended that album.. recommendations to a specific audience usually make me cringe.
What am I missing?
Maybe I should listen to more in whatever genre it is?
I don't know that there's any secret to it. Aesthetic taste is one of the great mysteries of life, at least in my book.
I don't know, I just love the dark, sort of urban narrative feeling I get from it. I didn't really get Burial at first either, but then one day "Distant Lights" from the Burial LP hit me and I've been hooked since.
I don't know. Maybe you should put on some headphones with it and walk around downtown Dallas. Maybe it'll contextualize a bit. I don't know.
Edit: I think I said "I don't know" 5 times in that post.
Altough I still don't like the Burial album, I start to like this one a lot! I only checked it out to see if his next step would be more appealing to me... and guess what?
If you want to give it another shot be sure to listen to it in a good setting as I explained (and IanRedpoint) in my previous post.
I started off thinking I was being closed-minded about this album. That I was letting the cliché factor of all those pitch-shifted vocals get in the way of getting a real feel for the album. But now I'm starting to think that it's what those samples represent that's putting me off this album.
the first album was like some impossible negative shape with all the angles pointing straight in towards a bleak core of almost-nothing. It simultaneously attracted and repelled me and made me go looking for the emotional depth hidden in all the tiny details. In many ways it was quite a difficult listen, but so masterfully constructed that I've pretty much memorised every tiny little click, ping or reverbed crackle on that record. It has vocal samples alright, but they're sparingly used, and in a totally different context- the feeling is of fractured little snippets of memory, reminders of something real that only really serve to highlight the total alienation when they're not there.
But in this album, nearly every single track relies (or seems to think it needs to rely) on a hook- a sad vocal sample coupled with a prominent minor-key melody. To me, that's the antithesis of what the first album was all about, and it almost feels like burial's lost confidence in the space and minimalism of the self-titled. The title track's a particularly bad offender, that looped 'because you lied...' actively gets in the way of my appreciation of the details. It definitely has its moments, and I'm not saying it's a bad album, but to me it just seems to lay itself on the line too much, tries to push emotional buttons instead of making you go looking for them. Whatever, maybe it'll grow on me... it took me quite a few listens to really love the first release after all. And everybody else seems to be enjoying it so that's cool I suppose.
"Now son, don't worry, those were just lies Daddy told to get prescription drugs"
I find this album quite interesting but unfortunately it's been tainted by the fact that I hated UK garage, especially at its commercial peak. But that's hardly fair on this record, though it is clearly influenced by that 2-step sound, its manipulated in an intelligent and interesting way. Some of the voices spoil it for me though, but I think this is a grower.
