Burial and Four Tet "Nova"

Today was supposed to be my lazy day, I had no intentions of doing anything productive, I managed to avoid the gym, look at my homework and I wasn’t planning on writing up a new blog post. Well that all changed after going on Facebook for the thousandth time, I saw a link to the latest Burial and Four Tet collaboration. “Nova” is the name of the song and 10 seconds in I felt the urge to write about this tune. Burial and Four Tet have worked together a number of times with very good to excellent results but I feel”Nova” is their best effort. What makes “Nova” so fantastic is the way these two seamlessly blended their styles together. In their previous tracks it was relatively easy to pick apart the contribution of each artist. For example one could tell when it was Burial who programmed the drums and samples or if it was Four Tet who brought in the synths along with other various instruments. But on “Nova” it is the opposite; Burial and Four Tet seem to have purposely made it tougher for the listener to distinguish who did what. For instance the drums have the signature Burial shuffle but they are smoothed out, subtly toning down his usual sharp  tone that he is famous for.

The gorgeous female sample appears to be coming from Burial and the rest of the ambience that surrounds “Nova” sounds like something Four Tet will do. Guitars, bells and piano gracefully creep in and out of the mix. Everything is placed carefully and each sound plays an integral role in benefiting the song as a whole. “Nova’ has a 4/4 dance beat blanketed with a cloud of unidentifiable sounds that have a poignant effect. I can’t help but visualize images of disappointed souls in a night club, people slowly making their way out to the rainy damp streets after a night of binge drinking and other hedonistic pleasures. It is the juxtaposition of euphoria and despair that makes “Nova” wonderfully effecting. Once again these two have proved why they are my favorite electronic producers, they have set the bar high and I hope they continue to beat their own standards.

Burial "Loner"

Last year Burial gave us the “Street Halo” EP which I still thoroughly enjoy. It was short, sweet and straight to the point, the more I listen to it, I increasingly appreciate the EP format. Apparently Burial does too; I found out that he is releasing an EP called “Kindred”. In fact the whole thing is available for streaming on the hyperdub website. “Loner” is second track on the EP and it’s a gem introduced with a sample nervously stating “there’s something out there” and for the first minute the stage is being set in a cinematic way. Once everything settles down, the kick drum locks in a groove that is akin to the “Street Halo” track, and the dark ominous sounds slowly begin to creep in. Then a sped up and looped synthesizer produces a sense of urgency, almost as if time is running out and something very serious needs to be done. Towards the end of the song the beat evaporates and the only thing left is hazy static and a high pitched female voice that wails in a ghostly manner. And by that point you do realize that something must have happened leaving behind devastating consequences. “Loner’ is  yet another great example of the prodigious talent of this producer, all the sounds and textures gel together marvelously whilst maintaining the lo-fi grittiness.