Burial- Rival Dealer (2013)

Burial- Rival Dealer (2013)

Yes, the great Burial is always present, but he somehow manages to disappear from sight giving us two things, the feeling that he has been away for so long and the need for more of his songs, he is smart enough to produce this little Eps that left us wanting more, which is a part of the Burial magic, you can deny it that as much as he seems to be disconnected to the world, he is a constant presence, thanks god.

Rival Dealer is perhaps Burial adequate goodbye to the turbulent year 2013, a great cruel joke to those who already issued their best of 2013 lists, sorry but this move has just made many lists obsolete, you need to count every recording made up from day one, till the last day of the year, that’s how you can dissect the serious “best of” lists from “hipster” lists, and that’s obviously what Burial tries to evade, he just doesn’t gives a fuck about lists.

Burial is about evolution although he always manages to stay on that nostalgia dimension, he always find a way to re-invent himself, to bring something new and he avoid repeating himself record after record, of course we won’t find the initial impact of his debut, or of Untrue, he has evolved, he has been transformed, and recent recordings are proof of it, River Dealer, the song is perhaps Burial most intense piece, a desperate one by the way, it`s a very dynamic piece of music and you will be inspired to run like maniac while you listen to it, Burial is less abstract than in the past, he is more about adrenaline this time and les about evading reality and messing with ghosts of the past, of course those phantasmagoric voices make their apparition, voices and sounds of the past caught on Burial nests and reproduced at his will, Rival Dealer is definitely his most intense recording to date, and a sign that this guy’s creative vein is very far from drying, shocking forays into noise and rave that are enough for one to stand on the feet and start jumping and dancing around, Burial knows perfectly well how to affect us in many ways, not only in an internal way, but also in an external more active way, and this time he sounds heavily inclined to experiment and to outdo himself more than in the past.

Acts like The Caretaker or Actress had used Burial sound and adapted in a certain way to their needs, but none has come short to equal Burial, a master of texture who can only be rivaled by the great Aphex Twin, and those unique qualities are quickly put on display here, Hiders start with beautiful and resounding keyboards, and those disjointed voices filling the space, it’s a great and emotive intro, an obscure street gospel made by the master in a way often imitated by other acts, he doesn’t like to stay on the same path and quickly moves toward other beats, makes things easy for us to get inside and then changes its again to make things even more confusing, nothing comes easy in the Burial universe, as we are kidnapped into a dark world all of a sudden, and minimalism starts to fill the space around us, Burial knows how to run the movie before our ears, he is a master of conjuring images on our minds, and lately he have been mastering the art of playing with our feelings as he is able to shake us with the beauty of the sounds contained on Come Down To Us, a piece that exudes nostalgic beauty in a generous way, this piece, along with Rival Dealer are the recordings two largest themes, and this one shows an emotional and sound complexity not seen before in Burial, is a theme that goes for our mind and our heart, it defies most of the current r&b acts who uses electronic and textural gimmicks and shows and advanced take on this, no one’s is more daring that Burial and that’s perfectly shown as the man descends into noise, take us into face two, and tell us a completely different side of the story as the theme seems to be divided in sections, a big story made of small amazing parts, an almost complete universe coming from the anonymous mind of Burial, who by this record demonstrates he is a powerful force in music, a reminder that you don’t need a great face to make great music and a reminder that is the artist who rules supreme over his art, not the music business, not the fans, and not the media.