I have never actually heard anything by Burial before and he turns out to be one of those musicians whose stuff sounds exactly like everyone says it does. In the case of Burial that’s a good thing as everyone has been turning cartwheels over him – but what I’m trying to get across is that his music is really really describable. That doesn’t mean I’m going to try and describe it. Other people have talked about city autumns, urban blight, London in the small hours – all true! In his Guardian interview the guy basically says, yes, this is music for and about walking around at 5AM after a big night. And it is! It really is! It’s pretty beautiful too – I especially like the little showers of static and vinyl crackle that are like running yr fingers down old brickwork and feeling the cement crumble. Surely a lot of Burial’s critical success is based on how his music makes people grab for words?
I get the impression Burial’s older stuff was harsher than this – more gloom, less wondering melancholy, less vocals, even if the vocals here are inarticulate spirit talk at your ears’ edge.I’m reminded of what Kogan said in his column: “I think a lot of indie vocalists aren’t hearing a potential voice for themselves except in vocals that seem to be some sort of retreat.” – indie meaning boho-approved I guess. The piece of music Burial most reminds me of that I know is The Durutti Column’s “Otis” from The Guitar And Other Machines – one line of Redding, “Another sleepless night for me”, cut and chopped and pushed to the fringes and turned into a sad weakness.
My only problem is that this is very easy music to love, isn’t it? I mean, if you’re sleepless and walking around a city at 5AM almost EVERYTHING is going to be beautiful – there’s no mystery about that, hardly anybody’s about, you can let your defences down and drift. That doesn’t mean Burial shouldn’t freeze that mood and work from it, and he does it really well, but it’s like…there’s no struggle in the music? Don’t get me wrong, it’s lovely music, it just makes everything that follows it on shuffle seem that much more rushy. In this case “PYT” by Michael Jackson – great tune! Let’s extend the metaphor and say that PYT is like finding a shop open at 6AM and buying a Twix!