hype! burial

Following up from my dubstep post the other day, eMusic HQ was graced with a promo of the new Burial album today. In a word: gorgeous.

Burial is the shadowy figure that crept up at the bottom of many year-end lists last year. His self-titled debut album was, at the time, the apex of the burgeoning dubstep scene. To use a phrase Joe would hate, Burial’s tracks are soundscapes – emotionally charged love letters to 3AM London (”Night Bus”) and UK jungle’s heyday (as scene chronicler Martin Clark mentions in his eMusic review). But you don’t have to know or even care about that. What made Burial crossover to audiences outside the dubstep scene was his expert control of mood.

He does it again on the upcoming Untrue. You could listen to his recent Ghost Hardware EP and certainly get a taste of what’s going on. (The title track is on the full-length.) You’ll hear more voices than before, but they’re nearly always obscured under a smearing effect, like hearing someone singing from behind a pane of glass. My favorite track so far is “Archangel.” Burial takes a vocal riff and works it from every angle, while an underwater orchestra swells up behind the scratchy drumbeat pounding out a light, syncopated pattern. In other words, get excited. (Even Joe likes it!)

And yes, we’re scheduled to get it on the release date. (As far as I know.)