Burial (musician)

Burial
Birth name William Emmanuel Bevan
Origin South London, England, United Kingdom
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Record producer
  • musician
Instruments Personal computer[1]
Years active 2001–present[2]
Labels Hyperdub
Associated acts

William Emmanuel Bevan,[3][4] known by his recording alias Burial, is a British electronic musician from South London. Initially remaining anonymous, Burial became the first artist signed to Kode9's electronic label Hyperdub in 2005. He released his self-titled debut album, which drew inspiration from UK rave music and pirate radio culture, to acclaim in 2006;[5] it was named the album of the year by The Wire.[6] Burial's second album, Untrue, was released to further critical acclaim in 2007,[7] with critic Simon Reynolds calling it "the most important electronic album of the century so far".[8]

In 2008, Bevan's identity was revealed by The Independent and confirmed by Hyperdub. He has gone on to collaborate with Four Tet, Massive Attack, Thom Yorke and Zomby in addition to releasing a series of acclaimed long-form EPs, including Kindred (2012) and Rival Dealer (2013). He has remained reclusive, giving few interviews and avoiding public appearances.[9]

Biography

Early career: self-titled debut and Untrue

Bevan grew up a fan of jungle and garage, having been introduced to the UK rave scene by his older brothers. In an interview with The Wire, he explained:

I was brought up on old jungle tunes and garage tunes that had lots of vocals in but me and my brothers loved intense, darker tunes too, I found something I could believe in... but sometimes I used to listen to the ones with vocals on my own and it was almost a secret thing [...] My brother might bring back these records that seemed really adult to me and I couldn’t believe I had ‘em. It was like when you first saw Terminator or Alien when you're only little. I'd get a rush from it, I was hearing this other world...[1]

Bevan began sending Steve Goodman (Kode9) letters and CD-Rs of his home-made music around 2002, having been a fan of the music featured on Goodman's Hyperdub website.[10] In 2005, the label released the South London Boroughs EP, which collected tracks recorded by Burial for several years prior. Burial's self-titled 2006 debut album was the first full-length release on Hyperdub.

Despite early acclaim, Burial initially remained anonymous, and said in an early interview that "only five people know I make tunes".[11] In February 2008, The Independent speculated[12] that Burial was Bevan, an alumnus of South London's Elliott School.[3][13] The school's alumni also include Kieran Hebden (Four Tet), with whom Bevan has collaborated. On 22 July 2008, it was announced Burial was a nominee for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize for his second album, Untrue.[14] There was much Mercury Prize-related coverage in tabloid newspapers in the UK, including speculation that Burial was either Richard D. James (Aphex Twin) or Norman Cook.[15][16] On 5 August 2008 Bevan confirmed his identity, and posted a picture of himself on his MySpace page.[12] A blog entry stated, "I'm a lowkey person and I just want to make some tunes", as well as announcing a forthcoming four-track 12″, and thanking his fans for their support up to this point.[12]

Post-Untrue work

Rather than releasing a third album, Burial has spent the years since Untrue releasing increasingly lengthy and more experimental individual tracks. This began with Moth / Wolf Cub, a collaboration with Four Tet, and Burial's own track Fostercare and EP Street Halo. He developed this practice, experimenting with multi-part suites rather than conventional songs on a Massive Attack collaboration and subsequent solo EPs Kindred (2012), Truant / Rough Sleeper (2012) and Rival Dealer (2013). Each of these EPs was met with critical acclaim, with Kindred being singled out in particular as a landmark release.[17][18][19]

On 10 February 2010 Massive Attack's Daddy G[20] said they were planning a remix album with Burial regarding their latest release Heligoland.

On 10 October 2011 Massive Attack announced the release of a 12-inch single in collaboration with Burial with the two tracks "Four Walls" and "Paradise Circus". Massive Attack posted the track "Four Walls" on their website. The record, with sleeve designed by Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja, was limited to 1000 copies.[21][22]

In 2015 Burial released the "Temple Sleeper" single on Keysound Recordings.[23] An EP titled "Young Death/ Nightmarket" came out in November 2016,[24] followed by "Subtemple / Beachfires" in May 2017.[25]

In 2018, it was announced that Kode9 and Burial would compile Fabriclive 100, the final instalment of the long-running Fabriclive mix CD series.[26]

Style and composition

Bevan claims to compose his music in SoundForge, a digital audio editor, and to eschew the use of trackers and sequencers. As he describes the process in an interview, "Once I change something, I can never un-change it. I can only see the waves. So I know when I’m happy with my drums because they look like a nice fishbone. When they look just skeletal as fuck in front of me, and so I know they’ll sound good."[27] He also said that he didn't use a sequencer, because if his drums were timed too perfectly, they would "lose something" and "sound rubbish".[27] Discussing his rhythmic affinities in an interview with writer Mark Fisher, Burial stated that:

Something happens when I hear the subs, the rolling drums and vocals together. To me it’s like a pure UK style of music, and I wanted to make tunes based on what UK underground hardcore tunes mean to me, and I want a dose of real life in there too, something people can relate to.[1]

Of his production techniques, journalist Derek Walmsley wrote in The Wire:

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.[28]

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

References

  1. 1 2 3 Fisher, Mark.Burial: Unedited Transcript The Wire. Retrieved 21 January 2007.
  2. ↑ Burial (CD Back Cover Notes). Burial. London, UK: Hyperdub. 2006. HDBCD001.
  3. 1 2 Brown, Jonathan; Lucy Kinnear (11 February 2008). "The real school of rock". The Independent. Retrieved 2008-02-27.
  4. ↑ "The Top 50 Albums of 2013". Pitchfork Media. 18 December 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  5. ↑ IMO Records "Burial Biography" Archived 11 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine., IMO Records, London, 20 October 2011. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
  6. ↑ The Wire (January 2007). "Rewind 2006". The Wire. No. 275. Retrieved 25 July 2008.
  7. ↑ Best Albums of 2007. Metacritic. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
  8. ↑ Reynolds, Simon (2017-10-26). "Why Burial's Untrue Is the Most Important Electronic Album of the Century So Far". Pitchfork Media. Condé Nast. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  9. ↑ Stonham, Buster. "Review: Burial – Truant / Rough Sleeper". Music Factory Number One. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
  10. ↑ Electronic Beats
  11. ↑ Hancox, Dan. "Only five people know I make tunes". The Guardian, 26 October 2007. Retrieved 21 January 2008.
  12. 1 2 3 "Nationwide Mercury Music Prize nominee Burial’s identity revealed" NME. Accessed 11 February 2017
  13. ↑ Parkin, Chris (2 October 2006). "Hot Chip: interview". Time Out London. Retrieved 2008-02-27.
  14. ↑ Mercury Prize Nominations. The Guardian. Retrieved 2011-11-23. Archived 25 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
  15. ↑ "Help me dig up the real Burial". The Sun. 6 August 2008. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  16. ↑ Sisson, Patrick (18 January 2010). "Pitchfork interviews Four Tet". Pitchfork (website). Retrieved 2010-02-17.
  17. ↑ Burial – Truant / Rough Sleeper: Single Review The Skinny (magazine). Retrieved 13 December 2013
  18. ↑ Metacritic - Burial's Scores Metacritic. Retrieved 2013-12-13
  19. ↑ "Burial – Album Reviews" Pitchfork (website). Retrieved 13 December 2013
  20. ↑ ClashMusic–Massive Attack. Clash (magazine) (2009-10-02). Retrieved 23 November 2011.
  21. ↑ Four Walls – Massive Attack vs Burial ltd. edition 12″ « Massive Attack Blog Archived 12 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine.. Massive Attack. Retrieved 2011-11-23.
  22. ↑ Four Walls / Paradise Circus – Massive Attack vs Burial – The VinylFactory Editions Shop. Vfeditions.com. Retrieved 2011-11-23.
  23. ↑ Gordon, Jeremy (January 22, 2015). "Burial Releases "Temple Sleeper" Single". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
  24. ↑ Renshaw, David (November 28, 2016). "Listen To Two New Burial Songs". The Fader. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
  25. ↑ Friedman, Sam (May 19, 2017). "Burial Releases Two New Ambient Tracks "Subtemple" and "Beachfires"". Prefix Magazine. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
  26. ↑ Pearl, Max (August 15, 2018). "Kode9 & Burial mix the final Fabriclive". Resident Advisor. Retrieved August 20, 2018.
  27. 1 2 Clark, Martin (March 21, 2006). "soundboy burial". Blackdown Blog. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
  28. ↑ Derek Walmsley, "Dubstep", The Wire Primers: A Guide to Modern Music, ed. Rob Young, London: Verso, 2009, p. 92.
  29. ↑ https://www.discogs.com/de/Burial-Young-Death/release/9412422

Further reading

  • Twells, John (15 May 2016). "Burial turns 10: The roots of a dubstep masterpiece". Fact Magazine.

See also

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