Untrue, Burial’s second LP, wasn’t so much a progression but a distillation of what was found in his first self-titled release. Since then what we have been treated to could be thought of as footnotes to that second record, something I was perfectly comfortable with. But listen to any track on his new EP, Kindred, and you’ll quickly realise it’s something different. I’ll spare you the quasi-religious descriptions of his music, suffice it to say his trademarks are all there: the garage sensibility, the two-step clanks and tangs, the faded and pitch-shifted vocals, the samples and the synth. What sets it apart, though, is the sense of drama these tracks have. You’d be forgiven for thinking this is somehow owed to the average nine minute track length, but it’s the production which really carries things along.
Yes, the tracks are long, but so were their opposite number in Street Halo and these pieces positively loom over those. What’s important here is the technical mastery; the production is superb, but it’s never eccentric or flashy. It isn’t technical in the way someone might say something is “tech” but the subtlety and attention to detail on display are far from simple.
The star of the show is undoubtedly the title track, “Kindred”. The vocal melody that has been created is instantly recognisable and feels as you expect it would. The comfort-blues of Untrue have been replaced with something harder and the atmosphere seems more hostile. It’s still a homely sound, still music to curl up to, but behind the fog of noise there is something edgier than we are used to. Structurally, it can be roughly be divided into three sections. Each section is occupied with a staggered bass-line (no, don’t worry, not one of those ones) and spooky synth work which combine to make something almost choral. Bouts of interference and thunder weave in and out of earshot, with a section being separated completely and acting as something of an outro. The interference is just that, disturbing the flow of what is essentially one piece and giving it time to develop without going stale. In “Ashtray Wasp” the intensity and depth express themselves without relying on the normal formula at all. Vocals are given room to breathe with less emphasis on them being cut and shuffled, which inevitably draws the music forward. It’s divided in a similar way to “Kindred” but the juxtaposing of the hi-tempo club feel in the first half with the slower, wonkier second half gives it a bold, schizophrenic quality. If this last track gives us the clearest glimpse of what post-Untrue Burial sounds like then that’s fine by me.
Burial is the most important electronic artist of our time and Kindred is his most accomplished work to date. Its sad to think we will never get the Untrue II we had come to expect but what we’ll get instead promises to be so much better. Buy it, turn it up and turn off the lights.
Rating: 5 out of 5
