Antidawn EP
Burial’s music has always been steeped in atmosphere; the omnipresent sounds of vinyl hiss, rainfall, and cavernous reverb are as much a part of his signature as cut-up breakbeats and mournful vocal melodies. But until *Antidawn*, the UK producer’s work had almost always remained rooted in dance music. This five-song, 44-minute EP—long enough to qualify as his third album, if he wanted it to—definitively breaks with the club. Like 2017’s *Subtemple / Beachfires*, *Antidawn* strips away virtually everything resembling a beat, save for a few brief rhythmic flourishes, so muted they’re barely noticeable beneath the static. What’s left is a purely ambient swirl of brooding synthesizers, crackling white noise, and eerily processed vocal snippets. It can be pretty doleful going: “Nowhere to go,” murmurs a voice in the opening “Strange Neighbourhood.” “I’m in a bad place,” intones another in “Antidawn.” But as is usual for Burial, even the blackest cloud is ringed with blinding light: Church organs suggest a hint of uplift, and many of his chords are major, rather than minor. All five tracks unspool like discrete parts of a single overarching composition; they’re murky enough that it can become easy to feel lost in the fog, casting about for a recognizable landmark. But even at his bleakest, Burial’s world radiates a sense of calm. The overall effect is as hypnotic as it is haunting: Burial distilled to his most desolate essence.
Antidawn reduces Burial’s music to just the vapours. The record explores an interzone between dislocated, patchwork songwriting and eerie, open-world, game space ambience. In the resulting no man's land, lyrics take precedence over song, lonely phrases colour the haze, a stark and fragmented structure makes time slow down. Antidawn seems to tell a story of a wintertime city, and something beckoning you to follow it into the night. The result is both comforting and disturbing, producing a quiet and uncanny glow against the cold. Sometimes, as it enters 'a bad place', it takes your breath away. And time just stops.
Burial’s longest release in years doubles down on his signature sounds and downcast mood. A collaged chorus of voices holds together a windswept expanse of undulating nothingness.
The lesser-spotted artist builds knife-edge tension with an eerie, five-song collection that evokes suspenseful horror series' Silent Hill'
Burial included ambient interludes on his first two albums, and he gradually devoted more room on his singles to beatless compositions during the late 2010s and early 2020s.
It’s hard to overemphasise the influence Burial has had on British electronic music. His seminal 2007 album ‘Untrue’ was submerged in
Cheer up, there's some new Burial to listen to! ANTIDAWN is as melancholy as we've come to expect from William Bevan – and excellent with it
Burial continues his long hot streak of evocative and compelling sonic visions with 'Antidawn'. It feels like an entirely new genre of field recording.