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Burial (musician)

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Name
  
William Bevan

Role
  
Musical Artist

Labels
  

Years active
  
2001-present

Instruments
  
Personal computer

Record label
  
Hyperdub

Burial (musician) Burial Posts Selfie and Long Note Teasing New Music News

Origin
  
South London, England, United Kingdom

Occupation(s)
  
Record producer, musician

Genres
  
Dubstep, UK garage, 2-step garage, Future garage

Associated acts
  
Albums
  
Profiles


Birth name
  
William Emmanuel Bevan

Burial forgive music video


William Emmanuel Bevan, known by his recording alias Burial, is a British electronic musician from South London. Initially remaining anonymous, Burial became the first artist signed to Kode9's electronic label Hyperdub in 2005. He released his self-titled debut album, which drew inspiration from UK rave music and pirate radio culture, to acclaim in 2006; it was named the album of the year by The Wire. Burial's second album, Untrue, was released to further critical acclaim in 2007.

Contents

Burial (musician) Burial Four Tet Nova The life and times of a

In 2008, Bevan's identity was revealed by The Independent and confirmed by Hyperdub. He has gone on to collaborate with Four Tet, Massive Attack, Thom Yorke and Zomby in addition to releasing a series of acclaimed long-form EPs, including Kindred (2012) and Rival Dealer (2013). He has remained reclusive, giving few interviews and avoiding public appearances.

Burial (musician) Dubspot SubBass Studies Pt 3 Burial Peter Tosh

Early career: self-titled debut and Untrue

Bevan grew up a fan of old school jungle and garage, having been introduced to the UK rave scene by his older brothers. In an interview with The Wire, he explained:

Burial (musician) filesnialler9comwpcontentuploads200808buri

I was brought up on old jungle tunes and garage tunes that had lots of vocals in but me and my brothers loved intense, darker tunes too, I found something I could believe in... but sometimes I used to listen to the ones with vocals on my own and it was almost a secret thing [...] My brother might bring back these records that seemed really adult to me and I couldn’t believe I had ‘em. It was like when you first saw Terminator or Alien when you're only little. I’d get a rush from it, I was hearing this other world...

Burial (musician) Rouge39s Foam The Premature Burial Burial the Pallbearer

Bevan began sending Steve Goodman (a.k.a. Kode9) letters and CD-Rs of his home-made music around 2002, having been a fan of the music featured on Goodman's Hyperdub website. In 2005, the label released the South London Boroughs EP, which collected tracks recorded by Burial for several years prior. Burial's self-titled 2006 debut album was the first full-length release on Hyperdub.

Burial (musician) The strange case of Burial Four Tet and the identity

Despite early acclaim, Burial initially remained anonymous, and said in an early interview that "only five people know I make tunes". In February 2008, The Independent speculated that Burial was Bevan, an alumnus of South London's Elliott School. The school's alumni also include Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet), with whom Bevan has collaborated. On 22 July 2008, it was announced Burial was a nominee for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize for his second album, Untrue. There was much Mercury Prize-related coverage in tabloid newspapers in the UK, including speculation that Burial was either Richard D. James (Aphex Twin) or Norman Cook. On 5 August 2008 Bevan confirmed his identity, and posted a picture of himself on his MySpace page. A blog entry stated, "I'm a lowkey person and I just want to make some tunes", as well as announcing a forthcoming four-track 12″, and thanking his fans for their support up to this point.

Post-Untrue work

Rather than releasing a third album, Burial has spent the years since Untrue releasing increasingly lengthy and more experimental individual tracks. This began with Moth / Wolf Cub, a collaboration with Four Tet, and Burial's own track Fostercare and EP Street Halo. He then developed this practice, experimenting with multi-part suites rather than conventional songs on a Massive Attack collaboration and subsequent solo EPs Kindred (2012), Truant / Rough Sleeper (2012) and Rival Dealer (2013). Each of these EPs was met with critical acclaim, with Kindred being singled out in particular as a landmark release.

On 10 February 2010 Massive Attack's Daddy G said they were planning a remix album with Burial regarding their latest release Heligoland.

On 10 October 2011 Massive Attack announced the release of a 12-inch single in collaboration with Burial with the two tracks "Four Walls" and "Paradise Circus". Massive Attack posted the track "Four Walls" on their website. The record, with sleeve designed by Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja, was limited to 1000 copies.

In 2015 Burial released the "Temple Sleeper" single on Keysound Recordings. An EP titled "Young Death/ Nightmarket" came out in November 2016. In May 2017, "Subtemple / Beachfires" was released, showcasing a more ambient sound.

Style and composition

Bevan claims to compose nearly all his music in SoundForge, a digital audio editor, and to eschew the use of trackers and sequencers. As he describes the process in an interview, "Once I change something, I can never un-change it. I can only see the waves. So I know when I’m happy with my drums because they look like a nice fishbone. When they look just skeletal as fuck in front of me, and so I know they’ll sound good." He also said that he didn't use a sequencer, because if his drums were timed too perfectly, they would "lose something" and "sound rubbish". Discussing his rhythmic affinities in an interview with writer Mark Fisher, Burial stated that:

Something happens when I hear the subs, the rolling drums and vocals together. To me it’s like a pure UK style of music, and I wanted to make tunes based on what UK underground hardcore tunes mean to me, and I want a dose of real life in there too, something people can relate to.

Of his production techniques, journalist Derek Walmsley wrote in The Wire:

Burial decided at the outset to avoid at all costs the rigid, mechanistic path that eventually brought drum 'n' bass to a standstill. To this end, his percussion patterns are intuitively arranged on the screen rather than rigidly quantized, creating minute hesitations and slippages in the rhythm. His snares and hi-hats are covered in fuzz and phaser, like cobwebs on forgotten instruments, and the mix is rough and ready rather than endlessly polished. Perhaps most importantly, his basslines sound like nothing else on Earth. Distorted and heavy, yet also warm and earthy, they resemble the balmy gust of air that precedes an underground train.

Studio albums

  • Burial (2006)
  • Untrue (2007)
  • Extended plays

  • South London Boroughs (2005)
  • Distant Lights (2006)
  • Ghost Hardware (2007)
  • Street Halo (2011)
  • Kindred (2012)
  • Truant / Rough Sleeper (2012)
  • Rival Dealer (2013)
  • Young Death / Nightmarket (2016)
  • Subtemple / Beachfires (2017)
  • Rodent (2017)
  • References

    Burial (musician) Wikipedia