Post Rave Glow: The Mindscape of BURIAL
BURIAL, UNTRUE (2007)
Few artists have created such visual imagery through their music, like London-producer Burial. Drawing inspiration from the mixtapes of his rave-obsessed older brother, Burial crafted a niche that pays homage to the various club subcultures of mid 90s UK. Stretched vocal samples from RnB vocalists, blurring the line between male and female, washed in ambient, futuristic synth pads are ingredients that paint the landscape of Burial’s dark world.
In 2006, the UK was deep into the dubstep movement, clubs were full of sub-bass frequencies and large sounds, yet Burial was like an anomaly in the scene. His self-titled album like a deep intake of breath, was a pause from the hectic sounds around him.
Following up with his now classic album Untrue, Burial further refined his sounds, creating a warmer and soulful selection of tracks, yet still dark and moody. It was this juxtaposition between the light and dark that kept his music interesting, walking a fine line between these polar opposites and creating a blueprint that many have tried to imitate since.
To remember this legendary underground UK producer, we look at the influences that shaped his sound, from the absurdist cinema of David Lynch to the sound effects of the playstation; nothing is safe from the grasps of this enigmatic artist.
UKG, Ewen Spencer
1.RAVE
“I liked the old tunes, properly darkside like finding a body in a lift shaft: dank moody tunes, suburban tunes.”
As a homage to the musical DNA of 90s rave culture, the roots of Burial’s music lie in the music of jungle, DnB and hardcore. Growing up, listening to his older brother’s jungle cassettes, Burial recontextualizes rave culture from the perspective of an outsider looking in. It is not that heights of the party that Burial is interested in, but rather the post-rave melancholia and dark underbelly that imbues his music.
UKG, Ewen Spencer
2. PLAYSTATION
“A lot of my drums are just people picking up new ammo and weapons in games. I love shells falling to the floor, power-ups, like when you get extra life. It would be good if you could do that in real life: pick up extra lives, fight end-of-level-guardians down by the shops, use cheat-modes.”
A game that permeates through the discography of Burial is Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear solid series. The second track, Archangel, from his album Untrue samples directly from the soundtrack. And rather than settle for conventional drum samples, he hunts through the games of his childhood, chopping out sounds of gun fights, and warping the vocals from horror games like Silent Hill.
Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid
3. CINEMA
“Anyway, me and him, we’re from different ancient tribes. And now, we’re both almost extinct. Sometimes...you gotta stick with the ancient ways, the old school ways. I know you understand me.”
Over his EPs and two albums, Burial has drawn inspiration from countless movies, sampling passages from the filmography of David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch and the Alien franchise. For the avid fan of cinema, Burial’s music offers an exercise in careful listening, as scenes take on a new meaning in the sonic landscape of Burial, muffled, drowning in reverb; at times unrecognisable.
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)
Inland Empire (2006)
4. LONDON
“Sometimes you get that feeling like a ghost touched your heart, like someone walks with you. In London, there’s a kind of atmosphere that everyone knows about but if you talk about it, it just sort of disappears. London’s part of me, I’m proud of it but it can be dark, sometimes recently I don’t even recognize it.”
Night buses, rain, south London boroughs and council estates; London is arguably the greatest influence on Burial’s music. It’s impossible to imagine Burial’s music being made anywhere else. The darkness of his music seems to be almost an audio representation of the city, creating this hulking beast that casts a shadow over everything he does. It is darkness infused with light, hopeful but immensely scary at the same time.
Caliban Towers II, Rut Blees Luxemburg
Meet Me In Arcadia, 1996, Rut Blees Luxemburg
5. AMBIENCE
“I wanted to make a half euphoric record. That was an older thing that UK underground music used to have. I think that type of euphoria is a British thing, like UK tunes, old rave tunes used to be the masters of that, for a reason, to do with the rave, a half smile, half human endorphins and half something hypnotized by drugs. It was stolen from us and it never really came back.”
In tracks like In McDonald’s, Forgive, and Untitled, Burial forgoes the drum heavy genres of Jungle and garage, in favour of a more atmospheric mood. Utilising sci-fi soundtracks and futuristic synthesiser pads to create a perfect balance between rhythmically driven tracks and peaceful pauses, in turn breaking the age-old consensus among critics, that electronically produced albums are terrible.
6. RAIN
“I like Blade Runner but I’m only obsessed with one scene in it, the bit where he’s sitting at those cafes in the rain. I love rain, like being out in it. Sometimes you just go out in the cold, there’s a light in the rain, and you’ve got this little haven...”
Producing his music on the largely limited audio software titled Sound Forge, Burial turned its limitations into strengths, creating music that is imperfect, raw and human. In a musical scene that at times can be clinical and over produced, his songs recaptured a soulful spirit; no better felt than in his sparse use of vinyl crackle and sampled rainfall.
Blade Runner (1982)
7. FEMININITY
“Well that works nice with my tunes, kind of half boy half girl, but that can be dark too. Sometimes in a mirror people see the devil’s face for a second, that wrong aspect, the eyes, in your own...”
Electronic music has long had the stereotype that is a male dominated genre, which is demonstrated in the abundance of DJ and producers that are men. Yet Burial gave his music a feminine touch, taking the vocals of early 2000 RnB singers, distorting them, pitch stretching them to create something that sounded other-worldly/alien, likening them to his own conception of angels; androgynous and dark.
In recent times with his track Come Down to Us, Burial included samples from speeches by The Wachowskis, two prominent trans women, highlighting ideas of self-acceptance and open-mindedness.
Alien 3 (1992)