CD Reviews

Burial

Untrue | Hyperdub

By NICK SYLVESTER | December 26, 2007

3.0 Stars

Dubstep, a sparse, bass-heavy hybrid of dub reggae and the broken rhythms of UK garage, has been given its Dizzee Rascal moment with the release of Burial’s Untrue, the elusive London producer’s second album. His songs have a simple, uniform formula — foggy minor-key drones set to soft woodblock hits and metallic clacks while some distorted vocal sample drifts through the mix wraith-like, repeating pop heartbreak and platitudes from decades past. The cumulative effect is draining. Imagine one of those Whitney Houston–type ballads from the ’90s had it gone unrequited, with the schmaltz left to smolder — that’s “Ghost Hardware.” Why anyone would want to be subjected to such gloom is a good question, except that Burial is a witch with the kind of drum programming that leaves no choice in the matter — just check the dense latticework of vocal clips, knife slices, and sub-bass skids in “Homeless.” At the very end, there’s a brilliant track called “Raver”; a cruel joke, it’s the album’s only straight-ahead positive-force dance number.

Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Hip-Hop and Rap, Music, More

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[ 05/26 ] "A Natural Order," photographs by Lucas Foglia @ David Winton Bell Gallery

[ 05/26 ] George Orwell's 1984, adapted by Nick Lane @ Gamm Theatre

[ 05/26 ] "2012 RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition" @ Rhode Island Convention Center

ARTICLES BY NICK SYLVESTER

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Try reimagining early punk as some physically intense and massively popular athletic contest.

ADOLESCENT FUNKS | February 19, 2008
Bradford Cox reminds me of my man Polyphemus — not just the one Odysseus conned in the cave but the one posted up in the countryside and pining in song for the sea nymph Galatea.

POP IN A HARD PLACE | December 16, 2008
The norms Black Dice resist are significant and strong and worth resisting.

BURIAL | December 26, 2007
Dubstep has been given its Dizzee Rascal moment with the release of Burial’s Untrue , the elusive London producer’s second album.