Burial "Untrue"

gumdrops

Well-known member
the idea of burial trying to sound like pharrell or sound as glossy and ultra-studio-tooled and perfect appalls me.
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
Pharrell isn't even THAT good at the engineering side. A lot of his snare sounds are pretty whack. He's a master at groove construction though in the classic funk mold... and that pretty much accounts for the majority of what's good about his tracks. He's no technical maestro.
 

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
the idea of burial trying to sound like pharrell or sound as glossy and ultra-studio-tooled and perfect appalls me.
Did you hear 'Unite'? He can obviously do it, just makes the endeavor that much less individual.

If 'Pharrel' is being used as a signifier of slickness here.
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
yeah, occasionally pharrell does get the technical side down right too, as in the timberlake stuff, me me too and trill for clipse or drop it like its hot for snoop, but for years, a lot of his stuff sounded very rough (although that makes it sound like a good thing, whereas what im thinking of is when 'professional' sounding digital equipment sounds shit, as opposed to the older pre-digital idea of 'roughness' and lofi etc), and even on the last clipse album, he went back to that old neptunes sound where it all sounds a bit cheapo, almost purposely non descript, like presets of presets. when i first heard superthug i thought it was quite terribly produced, ditto for early swizz beats.
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
Yeah... in a sense his clouding of the drums in swirls of rain and pirate radio static (which he admitted was cos he didn't feel his beats had the necessary fatness) is the equivalent of the geek-girl in a teen high school comedy- you know she's almost classically beautiful under the NHS specs and cardigan...
 
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gumdrops

Well-known member
id prefer him making the most of his limitations as opposed to a lot of producers prob faced with the same 'problems' but who instead try and sound like theyre working with the same gear and budget as pharrell...
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
yeah, occasionally pharrell does get the technical side down right too, as in the timberlake stuff, me me too and trill for clipse or drop it like its hot for snoop, but for years, a lot of his stuff sounded very rough (although that makes it sound like a good thing, whereas what im thinking of is when 'professional' sounding digital equipment sounds shit, as opposed to the older pre-digital idea of 'roughness' and lofi etc), and even on the last clipse album, he went back to that old neptunes sound where it all sounds a bit cheapo, almost purposely non descript, like presets of presets. when i first heard superthug i thought it was quite terribly produced, ditto for early swizz beats.

Even Mr Me too is pretty techno-primitive (which is what is so compelling about it).
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
but it has a certain plushness/fatness/lushness even (without being too slick or sterile) that most of the other beats on hell hath no fury dont.
 

Alfons

Way of the future
listened twice, still not sure about some of the vocal bits, archangel, dog shelter, homeless and etched headplate are current faves. Not really feeling raver to much tbh

there are a couple of tracks which were in the preview mix which I would ave liked to have on the album, the garagey one with the "this sound is for the underground" sample and the one with the forrest whitaker sample "connection so deep...". Every burial album should have some forrest whittaker samples:D
 

Logos

Ghosts of my life
I think the LP is wicked. There was some stuff on the Kode 9 mix which I would have liked to have heard but that will emerge eventually (like Shutta off the 1st promo mix). Actually hearing the album makes me appreciate the mix even more as it has a kind of delerious quality which I think is mainly due to the cut-up nature. It would have been nice to have been a bit longer, say 30 mins but there you go. If you held off listening to the promo mix before hearing the album give the mix a go as it is very good on its own.

Anyway as for the album itself the vocal science kills it for me...definitely the equal of no.1. Had an amazing few minutes this evening walking through London Fields as the fireworks went off all around, Untrue playing on my ipod...perfect.
 
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nomadologist

Guest
id prefer him making the most of his limitations as opposed to a lot of producers prob faced with the same 'problems' but who instead try and sound like theyre working with the same gear and budget as pharrell...

this is true

are we going to make fun of hell hath no fury today?

i like it all i don't care what anybody sayzzz

yeah, we've all heard the microkorg presets, but i still think he's a wonderful technician (as dolly parton said, it costs a lot of money to look [sound] this cheap!!)
 
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nomadologist

Guest
Pharrell isn't even THAT good at the engineering side. A lot of his snare sounds are pretty whack. He's a master at groove construction though in the classic funk mold... and that pretty much accounts for the majority of what's good about his tracks. He's no technical maestro.

He is though! He's a digital maestro.
 

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
There's a good interview on the redbull music academy site with Hank Shocklee where he talks about early Def Jam stuff and explains that they were running the drum machines through a Neve desk and so on. No wonder it sounded so fucking good! I always wondered.

What I'm saying is that it is actually easier to sound classy and competent with that super high end gear. That's what it's there for.

Not that it matters, but you know.
 

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
Actually hearing the album makes me appreciate the mix even more as it has a kind of delerious quality which I think is mainly due to the cut-up nature.
Still haven't heard the album properly but I really like the mix. Funny how it already sounds like an echo of the album, I suppose that reflects how familiar Kode 9 must be with the tracks. It's dead good in it's own right anyway.

Aaactually I'm pretty sure that most of my favourite bits in the mix are not on the album at all.
 
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sodiumnightlife

Sweet Virginia
I really want someone to release: "Burial: Screwed and Chopped"

And i would also really like Burial to remix "Heartbroken" by T2.
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
He is though! He's a digital maestro.

Look at his best I love the guy but a lot of the time his production style does not require hi fidelity engineering techniques, and indeed on Hell Hath No Fury (surely his most consistent full album production?) the cheapo-nastiness of it all is what gives it a certain vitality (in a very similar way to early Grime- all neon nastiness and out of sync drums).
 

Blackdown

nexKeysound
i've heard it said about the Neptunes that one reason why their mixdowns sound so crisp is because they have such a stripped back style, with so few elements, that they all have their place in the mix without having to fight for them...
 
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