Is there anyone else could post a selfie and get the music world aflutter quite like Burial?
As you probably know, that one photograph — along with a message of thanks from the elusive Hyperdub innovator — has dominated the Internet today.
And while the promise of new Burial material is always exciting, it’s the producer’s desire to “find some old tunes I did that still sound alright and never came out” that has piqued our interest. “It would be nice to finally put some of them out on vinyl one day,” he writes — and we couldn’t agree more.
In the spirit of last year’s catalogue of the best unreleased grime and dubstep classics, here are 10 of Burial’s finest moments that have never seen a proper release.
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 1/11)
‘Feral Witchchild’
A brief, 35-second clip of this 20,000-leagues-under-the-sea groove first appeared in a Kode9 mix back in 2007 and has captivated Burial fans since. “These 35 seconds,” writes one Dubstepforum user, “are what truly inspired me to start making music, and that was also when the realization of just how talented Burial is really hit me.” Same here.
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 2/11)
‘True Love VIP’
As we said in our rundown of lost dubs, ‘True Love VIP’ is “a grand pop song with a grand pop chorus.” We stand by that. There’s aching beauty in its simplicity; just listen to Blackdown’s reaction.
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 3/11)
‘Speedball 2’
We know he’s waiting for Dark Souls 2, but Burial’s love of video games goes deeper, if the title of this one is indeed a reference to the 1990 cyberpunk button masher of the same name. Wouldn’t this one sound right at home on Livity Sound?
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 4/11)
‘Afterglow’
Snipped from a Kode9 DJ set from late 2007, ‘Afterglow’ blends sickly rave hoover stabs with the kind of skipping beat that just can’t be mistaken for anyone other than Burial. Unsurprisingly it’s not a million miles away from the material on that year’s Untrue full length.
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 5/11)
‘Gaslight’
How ‘Gaslight’ managed to avoid inclusion on Burial’s self-titled debut album we have no idea. It was teased on a 2006 set for Radio 1’s Breezeblock, and is just as cavernous and urgent as anything on Burial.
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 6/11)
‘Cold Planet’
On ‘Cold Planet’, Burial professes his appreciation for Forest Whittaker for a second time, this time sampling from the actor’s Oscar acceptance speech (‘Gutted’ sampled Ghost Dog). It’s not the last time the producer hit YouTube speeches for source material either: recent EP Rival Dealer closes on a moving statement from director Lana Wachowski.
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 7/11)
‘Stay’
At a mere 40 seconds in length we don’t have a lot to go on here, but frankly it’s all we need. It’s the jungle-indebted buzzing synth that has us hot around the collar, helping the track sound like a chunkier version of Lee Gamble’s shadowy Diversions 1994-1996.
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 8/11)
‘Stairwell’
Premiered by Mary Anne Hobbs back in 2007, this polyrhythmic amalgamation rumbles as if assembled from every drum Burial ever deleted from a track, and it sounds like falling down a staircase in an Escher painting.
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 9/11)
‘Lambeth’
One of the few lost Burial tracks to be available in something close to its entirety, Kode9 played this in his Hyperdub label showcase back in 2009, its synth blips ringing out like a lighthouse on the horizon.
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 10/11)
Unreleased Burial & Four Tet collaboration
So yeah, we never actually thought Burial was Four Tet in the first place, but they do certainly make good production partners. This particular cut is a delightful 2-step throwback, combining Untrue-era vocal snips with Hebden’s unmistakable metallic clangs. Proper.
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 11/11)
