Last month Burial, Four Tet and Thom Yorke released their incredible collaboration and, to be honest, I thought nothing would beat it in 2011. But a few weeks ago it was announced that Burial would be releasing new material and, lo and behold, I was proven wrong!
The new 12” Street Halo (or EP, as Hyperdub calls it) starts off with a rather un-Burial like 4/4 beat with almost Four Tet like drums. But Burial still manages to pull off his amazing and surprisingly “singable” vocal samples. This song is an amazing opener to the EP, even though it still feels pretty average compared to Burial’s previous work. The best thing about this song is the short vocal snippet near the end. I still have no idea how he can be this good at vocals.
“NYC”, the second track of the EP, is arguably one of his best songs. It’s easy to hear the ‘traditional’ lo-fi, off tempo drum sounds that make Burial’s music so great. Once again, haunting vocal samples come in and out. “Nobody loves me”; machine-like sounds in the background…how can he be this good? And then there’s “Stolen Dog” which blew my mind. That synth! I’m not sure how he did it, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t do it in that Audacity-like software he used for his first album. The melody is perfect with the mood of the song, and pretty much the mood of all of his previous work.
Since when has weird background noise sounded so beautiful? Even more haunting vocal samples. How does he do it? How can he be so good? I don’t think we’ll ever know.
4.5
Burial – Street Halo
