Burial, Kindred
Featured Album
Multi-part suites that move in waves
Even after he outed himself as Will Bevan, Burial’s taken so long to follow up 2007′s Untrue that he might as well be made of vapor. But Kindred – only his second EP in five years – announces itself as weighty. It’s only three tracks, but together they’re more than 30 minutes long. In another era, that’s the sort of thing he might have called an album.
“Loner” is the grabber – a swarming four-to-the-floor dance track, full of creepy-crawly vinyl dust and hissing vault doors opening from old Universal horror movies, not to mention a very fast, and very obsessive, four-note synth spiral looping in the background. The beat keeps changing up, but whatever its sources it reads like techno, and surely will do a few Berlin-centric dance floors serious damage for the rest of the year.
“Loner” is a mere seven minutes long. “Kindred” and “Ashtray Wasp,” which bracket it, are between 11 and 12. They move in waves, multi-part suites that seem less like variations on themes as a lot of ideas segued together – like the Beastie Boys’ “B-Boy Bouillabaisse,” or side two of Abbey Road, or what Zomby’s releases might be like without the hard stops between songs. They invite immersion, as well as the sense that Burial’s got a lot of ideas cooked up for his next actual album.
