100 Best Albums
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- 5 NOV 2007
- 13 Songs
- Untrue · 2007
- Untrue · 2007
- Phoneglow / Eyes Go Blank - Single · 2024
- Nova / Moth - Single · 2009
- Untrue · 2007
- Untrue · 2007
- Untrue · 2007
- Untrue · 2007
- Untrue · 2007
- Untrue · 2007
Essential Albums
- 100 Best Albums William Emmanuel Bevan’s music has always sounded as though it's being transmitted from somewhere deep underground—a place where drum ’n’ bass echoes through dirt and concrete. The London-born artist, better known as Burial, emerged during a pivotal time for electronic music in the UK, just as the jungle and garage scenes of the 1990s were blossoming into a network of different genres, each one generating its own sound and community. Bevan came up in the strobe lights of London raves, but by the early 2000s, he was also embracing the darker, more gothic sounds of bass music; he eventually sent demos of his work to Kode9, the founder of a fledgling electronic label called Hyperdub. Released in 2007, Untrue immediately became a touchstone of UK electronic music, aided by the mystique surrounding Burial’s anonymity (to this day, Bevan rarely grants interviews). The album is gritty without being abrasive, with house-like vocals that lend a gentleness to the thundering, muddy bass. The album’s second track, “Archangel”, is perhaps one of the most recognisable songs in electronic music, with its pitched-down soprano sample consisting of the lines, “Holding you/Couldn’t be alone/Couldn’t be alone/Couldn’t be alone.” (Bevan apparently wrote and produced the song in 20 minutes, following the death of his dog.) On much of Untrue, Bevan sounds like he’s attempting to triangulate the sound of isolation after dark. He wrote and produced the record nocturnally, insisting on getting to work long after the sun went down. Tracks like “In McDonalds” and “Homeless” are indicative of that approach: They evoke something quietly desperate, both in their titles and their spare compositions; the result is electronic music that’s deeply human and affecting. On Untrue, Bevan’s notes from underground thunder from beginning to end.
Albums
- 2022
Artist Playlists
- Haunting, cinematic post-dubstep from a shadowy London legend.
- Rain-soaked and beautifully blunted rhythms from the underground.
- These jungle, 2-step and ambient classics helped create his sound.
Compilations
More To Hear
- Electronic music never sounded so emotional.
About Burial
Most dance music, even the bittersweet stuff, is predicated upon good times in good company. Burial, on the other hand, has flipped the iconography of the form—rolling breakbeats, ethereal synths and the constant crackle of worn vinyl—into an extended meditation on loneliness and loss. Born William Bevan in South London in 1979, Burial grew up fascinated by tales of the first-generation rave culture he was too young to witness, and his earliest work—like 2005’s South London Boroughs EP, or his self-titled 2006 debut LP—channelled secondhand memories of renegade parties and pirate radio into forlorn tracks pairing cut-up R&B vocals with scratchy garage rhythms and ghostly echoes. Burial’s first releases were cloaked in mystery, and though his identity was eventually revealed, his music still harbours a secretive air, leaving indecipherable samples swirling in the murk. Following his landmark second album, 2007’s Untrue, Burial turned his attention to singles and EPs, expanding his vision to include trance (“Space Cadet”), synth-pop (“Nightmarket”) and even sprawling dark ambient (2022’s Antidawn). What holds all his work together—including numerous collaborations with Four Tet and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke—is the sense that it is a transmission from a self-contained universe far, far away, where a mournful heart telegraphs faint messages seeking solace.
- HOMETOWN
- London, England
- BORN
- August 1979
- GENRE
- Electronic