| It's Music of the Year time. And Burial-Kindred is going to be in a lot of those lists. So here's what I wrote at the time. New Burial EP. Everybody else is talking about it so I'd better as well The world and their dog are falling over themselves to write some pretentious rubbish about Burial's latest EP, "Kindred". So much so that Quietus has a competition for the best Pseud's Corner entry. http://thequietus.com/articles/07997-burial-pseud-quotes http://www.facebook.com/questions/339833632727100/?qa_ref=ssp Personally, my favourite quote was in the comments on the YouTube video of the middle track, "Loner". @Gwotch Skrillex > Bural @loltrev if he's? so good, so why he can't make a proper drop hahahaha onlyrealDubstep - 1 day ago Which I think you'll agree pretty much sums up the state of music appreciation in early 2012, doesn't it? Or at least music appreciation on Youtube. Meanwhile, my immediate reaction after downloading the files was "Did I get a bad rip or something? Why's there so much hiss, static and noise all over everything?" I had exactly the same problem with the two releases from Clams Casino last year; Instrumentals and Rainforest. There's clearly something going on there that's worth listening to. But it's submerged in lo-fi noise. So much so that I got a friend to throw over the uncompressed FLACs just to check but they sounded exactly as bad as my MP3s. Apparently, it's actually supposed to sound like that. At which point I go, 'wut?' Anyway back to Burial - Kindred. If you can get past the gratuitously low production values (I'm sorry. Cheap shot!), we've apparently got to a point where Burial sounds like a bad copy of a Burial Clone copy. Which is really quite sad because for a while now there's been a gushing rush of Burial Clones some of which are really quite good. Except there's only so much drum track based on a 19th century shuttle loom, compressor hiss pump and heavily reverbed vocals that have been auto-tuned, pitchshifted, chopped and diced that you can listen to. And here we are with one last pressing from the batch of cider apples. Up to this point, you could enjoy the copies, then go back and listen to Burial and realise that he just plain did it better. He still is, but it's got to the point where this particular batch of apples has no juice left in them. So we're left with the cliche "it sounds like a wasted post-club journey home, with the night's music still ringing in your ears" http://thequietus.com/articles/07964-burial-kindred-hyperdub-urban-explorer at which point I want to repeat the sentiments here. Why is so much of the music we listen to so bleak http://thequietus.com/articles/07838-the-new-bleak in part because it accompanies the insidious sense of 'We're all fucked' that's been steadily growing in the wake of several rounds of savage, self-interested government action. I tried to get home, but I couldn't find the night bus stop. It's only an hour's walk if I can just walk in the right direction. Think I'll just sit here for a bit with my can of beer. So it's music to share an early Sunday morning park bench with in the heart of a financial district wasteland in a 28 days later (or Shaun of the Dead) out-take. Yeah, that's about right, innit. White Noise: Burial – Kindred » UK producer Burial is as close as you get to Dance royalty, and I have to admit I wasn't relishing the task of attempting to articulate my thoughts on his new release. Since he put out Untrue in 2... +Marco Horvers My post was quite the rant, wasn't it! ;) After a few more listens, it's all growing on me. And clearly there is a LOT going on in the mix. And perhaps that's what sets him apart from his imitators. The other thing going on here is that I've been on a 8 week UK Bass downloading and exploring binge. So I've lost track of just how many times I've heard that wonky 'shuttle loom' drum track. So hearing it again on this latest version was a little confusing because I'm sure I'd heard it recently on a Late or Synkro (or was it Koreless, or BNJMN, or ) tracks, which in turn had been sampled and ripped from earlier Burial stuff. Clearly the IDM end of dubstep encourages an intelligent, intellectual appreciation so Pseud's Corner is forgiveable and hardly surprising. This really isn't intended for the middle of a 3 hour set at 3am when everyone's banging, mate. And it certainly doesn't have that warm cosy feeling of curling up in a Deep House groove.? I was listening to Burial-Kindred; the treated vinyl hiss, the Clack-Clackity, Clack-Clackity rhythm track (also used on Ghost Hardware, way back when). When it suddenly turned into the sound of Steampunk industrial noise from a cotton mill. It's the two step shuttle going from side to side mixed in with the clacking of the treadles and the whirring and hissing of the pulleys, belts and steam. Before you could say "Tiny Tim", I'd followed a flash of cultural associations (football!); Dickens, the Hawksmoor churches[1], London street urchins and mudlarks, The Cries of London, The Artful Dodger, Peter Akroyd and London:The Biography, Neverwhere and the Angel of Islington, Oliver Twist (Please sir, can I have one more can of lager?), "consider yourself one of the family", the gin and opium dens of East London, the Whitechapel murders. So there you go. It's not Post-Modern, Post-Industrial, Noise Music. It's actually Steampunk, Pre-Modern, Industrial-Revolution, Noise Music. And being made in London; A city with layers and layers of psycho-history to go with it's layers and layers of psycho-geography. [1]Christ Church, Spitalfields is properly strange and well worth a visit.? |
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[ 10-Dec-12 10:49am ] [ Music
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