New Music: Burial

Just got this from Amazon. The link is the Guardian's glowing review of this debut from Burial. The Wire also picked it as the top allbum of the year. Burial plays DubStep. It's a genre of music that's very popular in the UK right now. You haven't heard any of it over here, and I doubt you will. Several tracks of Dubstep were on the Chidren of Men soundtrack, which makes sense cuz Dubstep sounds kinda futuristic.

There's a simmering, suppressed violence bubbling inside Burial's music which conjures images of a city full of damaged people ready to inflict damage on others. But there's also a hovering grace and tenderness that makes me think of Wim Wenders's film Wings of Desire - a quality that emerges most clearly on 'Forgive', a beatless ache of sound threaded with the sounds of cleansing rainfall.

This album actually comes complete with a concept (it's a sound-portrait of a near-future south London submerged under water, New Orleans-style) while the most compelling readings of its theme hear it as a requiem for the lost dreams of rave culture. But the non-specific sadness that shimmers inside this music ultimately transcends attempts to pin it to a place, period, or population.

You can imagine Burial's tremulous poignancy reaching out to hurt and heal all kinds of listeners - fans of David Sylvian and Harold Budd, Massive Attack and Boards of Canada, Radiohead and Joy Division. This music can go far.

CD: Burial, Burial | OMM | The Observer