Bleep

When Burial set an early Hyperdub into motion with his debut EP South London Boroughs back in 2005 it marked a shift in the music landscape. A producer whose identity remained defiantly in the shadows would in short time become one of the UK’s most important artists, his reinterpretation of UK dance music, from the tripping gait of garage to the ambiguity of bassline, into bittersweet anthems imparting unquestionable influence to scores of ravers for the next two decades.

His first self-titled album brought him further plaudits, the spectral underbelly of rave resurrected, its glimmering rhythms and heart-thumping bass built to make bodies move whilst touching the soul. But it’s the 2007 followup Untrue that truly cemented Burial in UK dance history. Shimmering with the hauntological ghosts of a London after hours, the voices of the city stalk the edges of these tracks in the gloomy, rain splashed corners of post-rave twilight. Punctured by pitched up, fractured vocals lifting the mood to a bruised euphoria, woodblock two-step keeps the rhythmic pulse burning while glistening ambient interludes ache the heart.

Tracks constantly buoy above and submerge below the surface as shiny beat shards forge onwards, sourced from Metal Gear Solid samples and car indicator switches, like coins falling through sewer grates on the pavement. The rhythms and atmospherics coalesce into a tension and mystery that enshrouds the record, its blurry loneliness visualised by the artwork’s slumping figure, and yet a beam of light is always visible in the album’s mist. ‘Archangel’ is a prime example, ecstatically warped vocals joined by a holy choir to illuminate the obsidian beatscape.

Untrue is a classic album that deserves every accolade, one of our favourite records of all time and highly unlikely to shake that position as time goes by.