Burial "Untrue"

[nomadologist]

you have to admit that arcangel is the bastard child of moby's "play" and cher's "life after love" though. come on, admit it

Nope! I don't

 

[nomadologist]

Both of these are inaccurate! "Play" rifled through ancient blues vocals for a stamp of authenticity, Burial is after the exact opposite of this. "Life After Love" used a live vocalist through heavy vocodering. Burial achieved a similar denatured/hiccupping effect by pitchshifting fragments of vocal and cutting them apart to create the impression of different syllables and consonants...

Exactly, the entire point of Burial is that there is no aura anymore! (Benjamin)

 

[noel emits]

and isn't it a sad state of affairs when the use of vox as a whole is suddenly subversive? this says more about dubstep as a genre than it does about burial tho.

Who said anything about vocals being subversive?

There's a bit more to the way the vocal sounds are used in Untrue then simply putting someone singing in a track. So that's why it's worthy of discussion.

 

[zhao]

maybe what's cool about burial is not that the music is "soulful" per se, but that it is a vestige, a reminder, a fleeting glimpse of a memory of what used to be there but has died off a long long time ago :slanted:

 

[dHarry]

And (@ The Impostume) of course the worst thing in the world is to have one of your workmates hear about something you thought was only for uber-cool hypsterz like yourself...:slanted:

In fact the Moby comparison just underscores how original Untrue is, and how easily it might have gone horribly wrong, risks & rewards etc.

@bassbeyondreason: MJ Cole + cough syrup - lol!

Good points as usual Gek & Nomad.

 

[gek-opel]

maybe what's cool about burial is not that the music is "soulful" per se, but that it is a vestige, a reminder, a fleeting glimpse of a memory of what used to be there but has died off a long long time ago :slanted:

Well yes I can see how you could slot his music into your current schema Zhao... that he explicitly foregrounds the death of a purported immediate "soul" in the very act of artificially reconsituting it, a form of protest then. Although I would contend that this sort of argument would relate better to public/private space and post modern dyschronia.

 

[noel emits]

maybe what's cool about burial is not that the music is "soulful" per se, but that it is a vestige, a reminder, a fleeting glimpse of a memory of what used to be there but has died off a long long time ago :slanted:

An overheard conversation:

"I hate techno, where's the soul in it?"

"You provide the soul."

 

[PeteUM]

I have to say I'm with the haters on this one. Couldn't get into the first record and was depressed when Wire writers voted it album of the year. Still, paying heed to all the fuss about this one I downloaded it and we had it on at work yesterday, just in case I was being an appalling fascist as usual. First track didn't grate too much but after that it was actually quite difficult to listen to. I mean, I can sort of buy into the whole anonymous dubstep character makes icy emotional post-milennial hauntological pre-apocalyptical soundtrack to metropolitan dread, but only as long as I can get into the music, and i just couldn't. The same indistinct half-assed vibe seems to hang there throughout - the same emotional frequency - and the same fucking beats (and I speak as one who does not get on with busy beats). I do think this record will age badly, and I did keep thinking of Massive Attack. Still, kids'll probably be listening to them in 5 years anyway.

To be fair, I'm basically a Skream fan, so...

 

[noel emits]

It's not very get up and go music. If it's on I find myself inclined to be rather physically inert. That's partly the appeal maybe but I'm not sure if I'm entirely comfortable with being that erm, comfortable.

 

[zhao]

Thing is, Burial, or really any dubstep or vaguely dubsteppish music would never be in an "advert" in the U.S. Never. Maybe an MTV segue on MTV News during a particularly depressing story or something.

i'm sure that's what people said about AFX before that Bank of America commerical came out with "boy/girl" (or whatever that drill'n'bass tune was called" in the background.

i can EASILY see some of these burial tracks in adverts.

Archangel for Mastercard (rainy night as some chick sits against the window in a bar staring out -- "when you are alone in the world, there is always a friend... Mastercard."

Ghost Hardware for British Airlines (just imagine gorgeous long shots of sunlight through the clouds reflecting off the surface of the wings of a slow motion silver plane gliding through a panoramic sky...)

EDIT: oh and Skream and other half-step rollers for rapid-cut sportscar or motorbike ads. perfect. i'm sure somewhere an agency is putting something together as i type this.

 

[nomadologist]

i'm sure that's what people said about AFX before that Bank of America commerical came out with "boy/girl" (or whatever that drill'n'bass tune was called" in the background.

i can EASILY see some of these burial tracks in adverts.

Archangel for Mastercard (rainy night as some chick sits against the window in a bar staring out -- "when you are alone in the world, there is always a friend... Mastercard."

Ghost Hardware for British Airlines (just imagine gorgeous long shots of sunlight through the clouds reflecting off the surface of the wings of a slow motion silver plane gliding through a panoramic sky...)

I don't know, dubstep and grime have been around for years and years and I can't think of a single TV show or advertisement with a dubstep or grime song on it in America.

M.I.A. had quite a few songs ad deals from what I remember. That's the closest I can think of.

Children of Men had some dubstep on the soundtrack, but that's hardly Bank of America.

EDIT; Not that I can't "see" the fantasy ads you suggested, they'd be good ads...

 

[Dusty]

Its entirely up to the artist if their work is used on an advert. Do we think Burial would allow his music to be associated with the latest sports car?

I hope not.

 

[gek-opel]

Though I bet he's used on a Newsnight report montage soon enough though...!

 

[noel emits]

Its entirely up to the artist if their work is used on an advert. Do we think Burial would allow his music to be associated with the latest sports car?

I hope not.

He / they'll go for it. There's already the (really good) Bloc Party remix.

Whoever does this shit is someone who has enough sense to know that things move fast and if you want to make some cash you have to take it while it's there.

Having said that it would be far more interesting and indeed refreshing if they placed the Burial myth above such grubby concerns. That sort of thing I can get behind.

 

[UFO over easy]

I wish you guys would stop calling it a myth. Or an 'it'.

It makes 'it' less mythical.

 

[noel emits]

I wish you guys would stop calling it a myth. Or an 'it'.

It makes 'it' less mythical.

I think 'it' refers to the music and the album.

There's some deliberate myth making, and some inadvertent. I don't think the kind of discussion going on here is going to do the mystique any harm.

 

[noel emits]

It's you isn't it Ben?

That picture does look a bit like you.

Not that I care, at all. I'm just kidding.

 

[nomadologist]

Though I bet he's used on a Newsnight report montage soon enough though...!

Ha! I bet they'd use it on "The First 48" or one of those forensics real life murder mystery cold case files shows...

 

[UFO over easy]

I think 'it' refers to the music and the album.

There's some deliberate myth making, and some inadvertent. I don't think the kind of discussion going on here is going to do the mystique any harm.

hey I didn't mean it in a bad way towards you noel, or anyone, don't be sad. I just think that if it is indeed a myth, I'd rather totally embrace it than keep reminding myself of that fact, and yours was the most recent post

just had a thought about the remixes/adverts thing - doing big high profile remixes totally fits with the template burials using anyway, just look at all that work el-b and crew did way back when. there's some great dubbed out remix stuff with only the faintest reference to the original tunes, and those remixes have stood the test of time probably better than the originals in most cases. I don't think burial is purely a project in nostalgia but if it was there's certainly a precedant for stuff like the bloc party remix

 

[tom pr]

I don't know, dubstep and grime have been around for years and years and I can't think of a single TV show or advertisement with a dubstep or grime song on it in America.

That's because you're lucky enough to not get Top Gear...

I havent got the album yet (it's in the post), but Archangel is one of the best things i've heard all year.