Following on from their classic first collaboration Moth / Wolf Cub, and last year’s fantastic Ego / Mirror (which of course featured Thom Yorke on vocals), old school chums Burial and Four Tet are soon releasing a new work on Four Tet’s label Text.
Four Tet uploaded Nova to his SoundCloud just hours ago, and although it’s not pushing any serious new ground, why fix what isn’t broken? In many ways it’s the duo’s finest collaboration yet, featuring Burial’s trademark warped vocals and twitchy percussion lines, supported by some welcome timbral warmth and haunting melodic lines courtesy of Four Tet.
Get Yourself Together - Randomer - Scruff Box / Get Yourself Together (2012, Hemlock)
North London newcomer Randomer recently dropped his strongest single yet, on the always-quality Hemlock label. The single’s AA, Get Yourself Together, combines a 70s horror movie ambiance with off-kilter, heavy-duty techno beats, to form a deliciously dark dance-floor monster. Check it out above, or head over to Boomkat to obtain the full single.
A track somewhat akin to a short electronic symphony, Ashtray Wasp is quite possibly the finest track from Burial’s latest release, the superb Kindred EP.
Burial’s latest release, the three track EP Kindred, was just made available for download on the Hyperdub store.
It’s a release that sees him fully embrace the longer song structures found on his Massive Attack remixes, with two of the three tracks hovering around the 11-minute mark. Curiously, he also recycles quite a few samples that have featured in his previous tracks. But as with every Burial record, all of the tracks here are top-notch. With each release he further cements his place as one of the most talented electronic producers of the last decade.
Head on over here to buy the release, or stream the EP’s second track Loner above.
My first proper return to the decks after a hectic few months with Uni and work. As such, I’m a little rusty on the mixing in places, but the songs are all awesome so it’s okay.
I think as a mix it features heavily three artists I’ve been really into this year: Jamie xx, Thom Yorke and Disclosure; but it’s really just meant to cover a range of ‘bass’/’post-dubstep’/garage music or whatever you want to call it, from the housey bass at the start, to a much more dubstep influenced finish.
Bloom (Jamie xx Rework, Pt. 3) - Radiohead
Fiber Optic (Jon Convex’s Love Transmission Remix) - Echo Park
Yes List: Disclosure - Exclusive Mixtape (13 December 2011)
One of my favourite new artists to emerge this year, Disclosure are a Surrey based production duo who specialise in a distinctly effervescent brand of UK bass. The pair recently completed this hour-long mix for the record label Moda, as well as announcing a new single by the name of Tenderly, which you can hear as the second track in this excellent mix.
The Girl From Ipanema - Amy Winehouse - Lioness: Hidden Treasures (2011, Island)
It’s no Back To Black. Hell, it isn’t even a semi-cohesive album, being full of the obligatory demos, alternate versions and half-finished new studio work that one would expect from a posthumous collection of odds and ends. But in spite of itself, Lioness: Hidden Treasures quite often lives up to its name.
It is testament to Amy’s singular voice and excellent musicality that this higgledy-piggledy compilation is for the most part still great album. However, due to the nature of the album, there are definitely tracks that stand out over the rest. Her cover of the The Girl From Ipanema is definitely one of them; Winehouse gives the bossa nova standard a fantastic, modern invigoration, complete with a drum beat that wouldn’t be out of place in a British 2-step/garage track.
Though the partnership of Sepalcure is quite new, its two members Praveen Sharma (Braille) and Travis Stewart (Machinedrum) are old hands in the electronic music scene; each have released music in one form or another for almost a decade.
Riding hot on the heels of three very promising EPs, the duo’s self-titled debut LP was just released a few days ago, and sees this earlier promise fully realised in all its twitchy UK bass glory. There’s nothing particularly revolutionary in the pieces they’ve used to put the album together, in the current splintered UK bass/dubstep/garage scene, there’ll always be someone pushing a particular boundary even further than the last. But when Sepalcure put all the parts together, it really is quite revolutionary, in that they’ve formed one of the most well realised full-length albums to emerge from the UK bass scene for a very long time.
For that reason, along with the shared reliance on chopped vocal samples, once could easily compare Sepalcure’s debut to Burial’s Untrue. But in place of Burial’s strongly garage-influenced foggy soundscapes, Sepalcure present a much more house-influenced sound, resulting in a fresh, animated feel throughout the album. Really, although the two albums are classified as the same genre, they are worlds apart in atmosphere.
Listen to the album’s impelling lead single Pencil Pimp above, and make sure you check out the deliciously uncanny music video over here.
Four Walls - Massive Attack vs Burial - Four Walls / Paradise Circus (2011, Inhale Gold / The Vinyl Factory)
It would seem “production masterclass” is the new buzz phrase in album blurbs these days, but it’s not really hyperbole when talking about Burial.
The subject of prolonged rumour and intense speculation, Inhale Gold and The Vinyl Factory are proud to present Massive Attack’s long awaited collaboration with Burial, Four Walls / Paradise Circus.
These new Burial mixes of previously unreleased Massive Attack track ‘Four Walls’ and Heligoland favourite ‘Paradise Circus’ are available exclusively as limited vinyl edition of only 1000 copies worldwide.
Pressed on heavyweight 180g 12” vinyl housed in a stunning, hand numbered, gold glitter screen-printed sleeve designed by Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja (3D), this edition has been crafted by The Vinyl Factory, and is sure to become a highly coveted collectors item.
As you’d expect from these two acts these are no ordinary remixes and Burial has completely rebuilt both tracks in his own unique style providing a masterclass in production. You can hear ‘Four Walls’ below.
At around 12 minutes each, both ‘Four Walls’ and ‘Paradise Circus’ have been given the time and space to evolve and develop going way beyond the scope of normal remixes, with the end result two highly original, in every sense of the word, pieces of music.
This limited edition vinyl sold out in a matter of days, but one would assume and hope that there will also be a digital release. In the meantime, check out Burial’s reworking of Four Walls above. It’s one of his most ambitious projects to date, and I think it would be safe to say he pulls it off.
