Burial

Precious little is known about Burial, the moniker of an anonymous dubstep producer from London, and that's part of the allure of his music, which, beginning with his self-titled 2006 debut album, was critically acclaimed. "I love...old jungle and garage tunes, when you didn't know anything about them, and nothing was between you and the tunes," Burial was quoted as saying in a rare interview (The Guardian, October 26, 2007). "I liked the mystery; it was more scary and sexy, the opposite of other music." In that same article, he was quoted as saying, somewhat unbelievably, "Only about five people outside of my family know I make tunes, I think. I hope." Anonymity, of course, has long been a quality positively associated with electronic music, going back to early years of Detroit techno, when acts such as Underground Resistance and Drexciya veiled themselves in obscurity, and even farther back to the days of Kraftwerk, who championed the notion, "We are the robots," and techno godfather Juan Atkins, who named himself Model 500, as if he were a man-machine. So it's the back story of Burial (or rather, the lack thereof), in addition to his music, that explains his great appeal to many of those well-versed in the traditions of electronic music. Burial debuted in March 2005 on the label Hyperdub with the South London Boroughs EP, which included the tracks "Southern Comfort" and "Broken Home." These two tracks would be among the highlights of the full-length album Burial (2006), whose release was accompanied by a second EP, Distant Lights (2006). Comprised of bleak, evocative dubstep -- one track, "Night Bus," entirely beatless, driven only by sample rainfall and eerie synth melodies -- Burial proved critically acclaimed, most notably being voted Album of the Year by The Wire; it was also voted among the best albums of the year by Mixmag and was reviewed favorably by Pitchfork. Burial's second album, Untrue (2007), was eagerly awaited as a result of all the acclaim; an EP, Ghost Hardware (2007), was released a few months in advance, drumming up further interest. Like its predecessor, Untrue proved critically acclaimed, voted among the best albums of the year by XLR8R, for instance, and reviewed by Pitchfork even more favorably than its predecessor; on the other hand, Untrue, also like its predecessor, proved polarizing, as more than a few -- especially those outside the media -- considered the album to be overhyped.