Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
|
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Much speculation surrounded the identity of Burial, the creator of Untrue and its predecessor, 2006's eponymous Burial––speculation quashed when its maker dropped the mask and revealed himself to be William Bevan, a fairly ordinary South Londoner who was just quite fond of making and releasing tunes without all the surrounding fuss. Such revelations, however, cannot quash the haunting beauty of Untrue itself. Released as most of Burial's dubstep peers were chasing darker sounds and heavier, wobblier bass in an effort to move dancefloors, tracks like "Archangel" and "Etched Headplate" take an altogether different, rather more serene route. 2-step garage rhythms are drenched with glowing, ethereal synths and vinyl crackle, and where vocals appear, they're heavily treated, chopped-up and pitch-shifted, until they sound like the coos and croons of a particularly soulful angel. Aided by occasional snatches of found sound and spoken narrative--"He's not hardcore ... he's not setting out to hurt people" promises one lonely voice, out of the gloom--it's a record that flows remarkably, a journey through a lonely metropolis that's both melancholy and strangely uplifting. ––Louis Pattison
Review
As the name might suggest, Burial likes to keep things underground. The mysterious producer is a curious anomaly on the currently flourishing dubstep scene, keeping his identity secret while others are networking furiously and raking in lots of DJ cash. Rumours abound that he doesn't even exist, that Burial is actually the alter-ego of an established artist - perhaps Kode9, who runs the Hyperdub label. In reality, he's just the reclusive type.
The music, too, is of a different character to the dubstep sound currently blasting out from club backrooms across Europe. Burial's beats aren't really aimed at the dancefloor, more for headphones-under-a-hoodie, down in a tube station at midnight - and the headphones need to be decent. Where the best-known dubstep cuts are built on growling, barking basslines, his beats are a more intricate proposition.
Last year's eponymous debut LP flirted with the most experimental electronica and introduced a new breed of leftfield-loving listener to the overall scene. Now this much-anticipated follow-up takes an unexpected step back, and an intriguing return to classic two-step. It's a sort of evil twin to the uplifting, chart-friendly sound that shone brightly but briefly five years ago.
The skippety beats and soulful vocals are still intact, but Burial darkens the mood considerably, burying them deep within layers of rumbling, almost imperceptible bass and horror-soundtrack synth. The ominous 'Archangel', 'Ghost Hardware,' 'Etched Headplate' and 'Untrue' itself could easily be remixes of long-forgotten early-noughties cuts, and suggest a man who, when those old two-step house-parties were in full swing, was hiding in the garage. Keeping your distance can sometimes pay rich dividends. --Si Hawkins
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
46 of 47 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Never heard anything quite like this. It's haunting and magnificent, taking me on a journey round the streets of London I grew up in.
A muffled clatter of shutters, hissing neon lights, snatches of conversation and music drifting down from open windows. Late night buses. The last tube... And it's packed with emotion, the soundtrack to loners walking the streets, couples parting, doorway confrontations and confessions. Lush fragments of tunes overlaying irresistable beats.
Perhaps this is the album DJ Shadow should have made instead of the Outsider to keep fans of Endtroducing on side. But he didn't. It was left to Burial, unknown genius, to create this peerless masterpiece.
A muffled clatter of shutters, hissing neon lights, snatches of conversation and music drifting down from open windows. Late night buses. The last tube... And it's packed with emotion, the soundtrack to loners walking the streets, couples parting, doorway confrontations and confessions. Lush fragments of tunes overlaying irresistable beats.
Perhaps this is the album DJ Shadow should have made instead of the Outsider to keep fans of Endtroducing on side. But he didn't. It was left to Burial, unknown genius, to create this peerless masterpiece.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
walking home from a club down deserted streets on your own, head down...dog barking in the distance...footsteps somewhere behind you...glass smashing down an alleyway...it's the sound of any urban city centre somewhere in the witching hour between 4.00am and 5.00 am...
It's dark and menacing and definitely NOT chill out music and yet it is somehow achingly beautiful and it truly breaks my heart every time i hear it. Like some other people have also said, i wouldn't even call it dubstep, it's so far out there on its own that you can't even compare it to any other genre. It's like someone got inside my head and diluted the sound of 20 years of my London clublife - house, rave, jungle, garage, techno, drum'n'bass - and then melted it all down and played it at slow-motion.
Burial, I salute you.
Genius.
It's dark and menacing and definitely NOT chill out music and yet it is somehow achingly beautiful and it truly breaks my heart every time i hear it. Like some other people have also said, i wouldn't even call it dubstep, it's so far out there on its own that you can't even compare it to any other genre. It's like someone got inside my head and diluted the sound of 20 years of my London clublife - house, rave, jungle, garage, techno, drum'n'bass - and then melted it all down and played it at slow-motion.
Burial, I salute you.
Genius.
54 of 60 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
If anyone could be said to define the state of the nation, Burial would be that man.
This album is mournful, epic, and magnificent. It speaks of loss - a loss of what we once were perhaps. But to me at least it speaks of a loss of direction - not the loss of some kind of utopian prestige connected to a golden era. Burial speaks of Britain today, with all its gritty, dirty, messy, impersonality. He speaks of its faults - without forgetting its magnificent cultural, musical and historical achievements. His is a balanced, truthful account of what it is to be British today - an account with no words, just music.
Some people listen to this album and are put off by the 2-step sound and garage/R'n'B clips - they think they're listening to, as some have said, 'what a chav would play at the back of a bus'. But they miss the point entirely - Burial IS talking about that kid at the back of the bus. The kids who are a product of our society, whether we like it or not. He's trying to articulate the lifestyle of the majority of people living in this country - their hopes, fears, faults and virtues. There is no judgement here, just a condensed commentary on modern living.
This is definitely album of the year - what an incredible achievement from such a brilliant young talent.
And we still don't know who he is.
Absolute class.
This album is mournful, epic, and magnificent. It speaks of loss - a loss of what we once were perhaps. But to me at least it speaks of a loss of direction - not the loss of some kind of utopian prestige connected to a golden era. Burial speaks of Britain today, with all its gritty, dirty, messy, impersonality. He speaks of its faults - without forgetting its magnificent cultural, musical and historical achievements. His is a balanced, truthful account of what it is to be British today - an account with no words, just music.
Some people listen to this album and are put off by the 2-step sound and garage/R'n'B clips - they think they're listening to, as some have said, 'what a chav would play at the back of a bus'. But they miss the point entirely - Burial IS talking about that kid at the back of the bus. The kids who are a product of our society, whether we like it or not. He's trying to articulate the lifestyle of the majority of people living in this country - their hopes, fears, faults and virtues. There is no judgement here, just a condensed commentary on modern living.
This is definitely album of the year - what an incredible achievement from such a brilliant young talent.
And we still don't know who he is.
Absolute class.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Chilled
Loved this album. It's perfect for a chilled listen at home but at the same time has some brilliant atmosphere.
Published 2 months ago by D
A very special album indeed
Easily one of the best albums I've ever heard. "Heard" is probably the wrong word though, because this isn't just mere music - it's an incredible, mindblowing experience.
Published 12 months ago by Ash
awesome chilled out beats
my only complaint about this cd is that it came to an end, I got into a chilled out trance over the course of the cd and felt physically bereft when it finished. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Lucy waterhouse
I think there's been a mess up somewhere
How is this classed as dubstep again?
Either Amazon messed up and put it in the wrong section, or the artist is trying to make dubstep which he has failed drastically at, but... Read more
Either Amazon messed up and put it in the wrong section, or the artist is trying to make dubstep which he has failed drastically at, but... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Chris L
Amazing Album, Despite Some Problems...
Burial's 'Untrue' has been the centrefold of electronica music ever since I first heard Archangel one time, stumbling upon the song by accident. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Jackadee
What an album!
This album is worth every penny! For starters the first thing you see when you open it is a little "Thank You" message which im guessing is from burial himself which i thought was... Read more
Published 24 months ago by Dominic Owens
Awesome, favourite album I bought in 2009
Just a quick one to add to the glowing praise for this album. Dark and haunting, ah I love it so much!!!
ps. you don't need to like 'dance' music to appreciate this.
ps. you don't need to like 'dance' music to appreciate this.
Published on 16 Mar 2010 by D. Dickinson
A great piece of work
I played this to a friend the other day and he told me to turn it off as it just sounded like "noise"...
Clearly he doesn't get it. Read more
Clearly he doesn't get it. Read more
Published on 5 Mar 2010 by Dave Bennett
good but different but good
I bought this after listening to Skream and was expecting the same kind of thing being totally ignorant about modern music , on 1st listen I thought it was a bit poor but after a... Read more
Published on 17 Jan 2010 by JimmyDCFC
Rhythm is a Dance, Sir
I'll always remember the first time I heard music. The swabs, still moist from my uncle's mucilaginous emissions, lay glistening in the silver kidney-dish next to the pansies on... Read more
Published on 7 Dec 2009 by Alastair Edwards
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
