Burial - Untrue
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CD Details
Artist: BurialEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2007-11-06
Music Label: Hyperdub Records
Soundtracks:
- Untitled
- Archangel
- Near Dark
- Ghost Hardware
- Endorphin
- Etched Headplate
- In McDonalds
- Untrue
- Shell Of Light
- Dog Shelter
- Homeless
- UK
- Raver
Music reviews of Untrue
Music Review: Burial's music isn't the future, but it might express the present.
Rating: 4 Stars
A minor change in tone can make a big difference. Burial's second album comes across as more listenable and original than his first, even though his compositional style has mostly stayed the same. He still uses the same jerky, bone-dry rhythms that characterized the first album, on many tracks like "Near Dark," "Ghost Hardware," and "Untrue." These beats still sound interchangeable -- hurried and nervous, occasionally missing the beat (deliberately, according to Burial; he doesn't like his drums to sound too precise) but without real hooks to make them stick in the mind.
There are also quiet moments like "Night Bus" from the first album, but this time there are many more of them. "Endorphin," "In McDonalds," "Dog Shelter" and "UK" are all soft ambient interludes. Untrue also uses more vocals than its predecessor, and this time they are less heavily treated and thus more recognizable as human voices. So, the ambient tracks are graced with gentle soul crooning, with the usual melancholy production, that makes them sound like torch songs reimagined for Burial's desolate image of contemporary London.
What's missing from this album is the sense of dread. There's nothing as lonely and eerie as "Distant Lights." There's less echo and reverberation overall, so Untrue never quite attains the same stark, sombre mood. The bass and tape hiss are also less oppressive and murky, so even though the drum tracks are very similar to some of the middling songs from the first album like "Wounder," they seem a little lighter here. That's the minor change in tone that greatly changes the overall impression. In an interview, Burial characterized the album as more "glowy" and joyful than its predecessor, and he's right, not because it's really all that uplifting, but because those few darkest mood pieces are absent. As a consequence, Untrue recalls Bryn Jones less frequently than the first album (although I still think he provided a lot of Burial's inspiration), which makes it sound more original.
The lack of a "Distant Lights" or a "Gutted" is a bit disappointing, since the apocalyptic feel was the most impressive aspect of the first album. But to make up for that, Burial makes a few concessions to mainstream dance music. Which is a good thing. Not only does it not compromise his music (which he remains as earnestly concerned about as ever), it results in his best work to date. "Archangel" in particular is the closest he's ever come to a hit single. It employs all of his usual earmarks -- warped vocals, hollow drums, echo -- but arranges the vocal sample into a concise, standout hook. The voice is singing some sentimental line, but the production renders it only half intelligible and thus mysterious, and the distortion gives it an unearthly sound to fit the title.
"Etched Headplate" features an even more striking manipulation of vocal samples. It starts with a long intro consisting of background noise suddenly and powerfully punctuated by deep bass chords. Then a fairly standard dance beat kicks in, soon joined by vocals. As always in Burial's music, the vocals are distorted and cut up, but here the vocal fragments are arranged to move with the beat and rhythmically snake around it. I kind of wish he'd done this with the entire song from which he took the sample, rather than just repeating the same couple of lines, but even as it is, the track is an otherworldly dance-dirge, with echoing gibberish as the main rhythmic hook. The way the vocals flow with the beat makes this the single most original and memorable track on the album.
"Shell Of Light" is written along similar lines, with less elaborate vocals. This time the hook consists of one word, repeated in distorted falsetto. It sounds almost like some kind of disco chorus, but that's exactly why it's interesting to hear it in tandem with a dark, bass-heavy Burial production. And then, at the very end, there's "Raver," which follows all the rules of classic eighties house, with a simple beat backed by vocal samples and warm strings. But this is also presented the Burial way -- the warm strings are a bit muted, they always seem to rise from the background without ever really taking the lead. This reflects Burial's sentimental attitude toward old rave music, and exemplifies the "downcast euphoria" that he wanted to portray. Paradoxically, despite the classicist structure, it's actually one of Burial's most distinctive creations. Instead of a big triumphant party atmosphere like "Strings Of Life," "Raver" suggests a minor emotional thaw or a moment of vulnerability.
Untrue isn't perfect. I think many of Burial's ideas are still unrealized, even here, mostly due to the long "clattering" tracks with similar rhythms. It's not like Burial cares about my opinion, but I wish he'd reconcile the danceable strain in his music, as depicted here, with the doomy dark-ambient touches in his first album, and ditch the tedious, rattling middle of the road between these extremes. But any dance producer working today should be listening to this album -- Burial is one of the few musicians whose work suggests some kind of coherent image of his time, even if its creator has yet to fully articulate it.
Description of Untrue
2007 sophomore release from the UK's mysterious and much-acclaimed Burial. Of all the artists past and present who claim to let their music do their talking for them, Untrue, is a record of weird Soul music, which lovingly processes spectral female voices into vaporized R&B and smudged two-step garage. Vocal lines are blurred, smeared, pitched up pitched down and pitch bent until their content is cast adrift from their original context and they whisper their saccharin sweet nothings into the void. Forget central heating -- the radioactivity of this album is all that you'll need to keep you warm this winter.Dance & DJ CDs
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