By coincidence or otherwise, two of 2006's most enthralling albums were thematically connected by apocalyptic visions of England's capital submerged beneath water. Thom Yorke's The Eraser was packaged in a medievalised Stanley Donwood panorama showing London's landmarks engulfed in waves while dubstep pioneer Burial's self-titled debut was similarly set "in a near future underwater south London.' The first album release on Kode9"s Hyperdub imprint, Burial was judged by The Wire magazine to actually be the Album Of The Year.
Burial and the preceding, tellingly named South London Boroughs EP were created by a south London-based dubstep producer whose identity remained as obscured as the streets which it portrayed (though in an interview with the Blackdownsoundboy website, the creator explicitly stated he was not Kode9, not the Bug and not Basic Channel). Also asserting himself as "not a musician", Burial submerged his own music beneath layers of "crackle" (pirate radio crackle, vinyl crackle and recordings of rainfall and fire) to obscure the limits of his music making skills and equipment. Such a technique eerily accentuated the album's implication that some kind of Judgment Day was forthcoming. Echoing the sampled claim in the track "Gutted" that "Sometimes you've got to stick with the ancient ways", Burial looked to the past in his music making, name checking (in interviews) artists such as Foul Play, Photek and Metalheadz, finding poignancy in the way such records once sounded like the future "but no-one noticed". As much as such artists or electronica musicians such as Pole or Basic Channel (to whom he was frequently compared), Burial's sorrowful, oppressive take on dubstep reminds of no-one so much as post hip-hop atmosphericists Massive Attack (c.Mezzanine) or Tricky (c.Maxinquaye). Nevertheless, upon its release, Burial's "requiem for the lost dreams of rave culture" (to quote The Observer newspaper) seemed utterly vital, producing an album that transcended the dubstep scene which birthed it.
The 2007 follow-up Untrue brightened the atmosphere a shade, with soulful vocals snaking in and out of the album like ghostly apparitions. Musically little had changed, with the dubstep-influenced beats and mournful strings again sounding as if they had been processed through the most basic of recording equipment. The reclusive producer was sorely deluded if he was hoping for less press attention this time around, with the album attracting the plaudits of critics from around the world. Tracks by Burial have notably appeared on Alex Smoke's Sci.Fi.Hi.Fi Volume 03, Kode9's Dubstep All-Stars Volume 3 and Mary Anne Hobbs' Warrior Dubz mixes.
