#14. Burial - Untrue
Dubstep, despite its aura of elite trendy mystery, is a relatively straight-forward style of British electronica in which typical old soul or r&b samples are mixed with syncopated beats to make sonic compositions with intensely dark and lonely atmospheres. The very idea of a club dedicated to the genre is somewhat absurd.
But even with its dark musical trappings, dubstep has become a dominant genre in the historically crowded UK club scene. So it was only a matter of time before American music snobs caught on to the whole thing.
The anonymous British DJ Burial has become, so far, the biggest crossover artist in the genre. His sophomore album Untrue, has proven to be his major breakthrough into the American music media. Scanning reviews, Untrue has recieved deserved praise as a dense, challenging work, with most critics acknowledging their previous ignorance of Dubstep.
Of course, this doesn't tell you what I think of the album.
Whenever I listen to Untrue, I imagine myself on a lonely walk home from a German club circa 1980, travelling past the Berlin Wall, into an uncertain decade of European history.
Burial's music sounds like the music of ghost DJs trying to warn humanity of an impending apocalypse. As an artistic experience, Untrue is ultimately dark, brooding, and unsettling. Of course, it is also hypnotic and comforting in unexplainable dimensions. The strange syncopations and mournful samples become instantly familiar, making you wonder how you'd lived without it your entire life, or possibly who Burial is ripping off.
(download it here)
Nathaniel Tyson
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