The time has come again. That same webcam selfie stares at you from just about every music site on the internet. The hushed voice of BBC 6’s Mary Anne Hobbs introduces a new track, probably called “Loner” or “Undrgnd” or “Sad :(” or something. That familiar vinyl static hisses away in your earphones. Ah yes, new Burial music is here.
In the mid-2000s, Burial released two of the most revered electronic LPs of the century—a self-titled debut and its untouchable follow-up, Untrue—all while keeping his identity unknown to the public, who speculated that the producer might really be Aphex Twin, Fatboy Slim, or—hell, who knows—will.i.am. Since 2007, the South London man we now know to be William Bevan has dialed back on the music, with no new albums and no live shows. Instead he’s released singles and the odd EP about every two years; his latest offerings are “Claustro” and “State Forest,” which arrived earlier this month.
Along the way, something strange happened: The internet turned Burial, once so impenetrably emotional, into a source of comedy. Here’s how Bevan—or at least the sad-boy concept of him—became a meme.
The Puddle Years
Photo by Georgina Cook, courtesy of Hyperdub
Before Frank Ocean, before Jai Paul, there was Burial—the 21st century’s first musical enigma. Typical of the mystery that enshrouded him in those early days is this picture of a puddle, published as a press shot around the release of Untrue in 2007, for ages the only official photo “of” Burial. A few more images—some dubious, some convincing—eventually circulate, variously depicting the dank dubstepper in a hoodie, a beanie, and what could be a full head of hair (or just another beanie).
Burial Fans vs. the Tabloid Press
When Untrue was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2008, Gordon Smart from the British tabloid The Sun embarked on a mission to uncover the artist’s identity. It all got a bit silly, with Smart falling for several ploys set up by Burial fans, musing how “the name Luke keeps cropping up” and publishing a text message he’d received from a cantankerous fan (“Burial is not Jesus but was born of Mary…”). Anyway, quite humorously, Smart never got his man.
Burial at Boiler Room
There he is. Front right. Burial at Boiler Room in 2010, listening to James Blake, one of his most devoted acolytes. Nobody in the video acknowledges him—even when he rolls and sparks a joint—and it’s never been officially confirmed that it’s him. But come on, of course it is. See if you can spot a reaction from him when Blake drops Untrue track “Near Dark” at 5:33.
Burial and the Softbois
Since first moistening eyelids across dancefloors everywhere, Burial has become a trope of electronic music, recognizable in other publicity-shy knob-turners who combine enigma with emotion (think Shlohmo, Traumprinz), ridiculed by the unconvinced. Make your own judgement after a scroll through the comments below Burial’s YouTube videos, where you’ll see stuff like this response to “Stolen Dog”: “The dog is that gentle innocent part of you, the basic you, the you after all those personas are removed ... This tune is about that inner you being mis-placed by the world, about it not being acknowledged, recognized, addressed. It is then in a sense, ‘stolen,’ it is not where it is supposed to be.” And so on. You get the idea.
I Am Burial
Even though Burial has officially been William Bevan since a 2008 Independent article pronounced him so, some remained unconvinced. Burial is Four Tet, the actual name of a Tumblr page, spent the first half of this decade ruminating on the suspicion that Kieran Hebden, aka fellow British producer Four Tet, was in fact Burial. Hebden initially played along, but the plot soon thickened: There was compelling “evidence” suggesting that Burial was actually Tiësto, Edward Snowden, and J.K. Rowling, too.
The Burial Remix
In recent years, the Burial sound has become the subject of memery. Unverified “Burial remixes” often pop up on YouTube, ticking all the usual boxes—the patter of rainfall, two-stepping beats, what sounds like the snake from Jungle Book. The cream of the crap is the above remix of “Can I Borrow a Feeling” by Kirk Van Houten (i.e. Milhouse’s dad), which has been credited cheekily to the Hyperdub hermit himself. Notable among the many other Burial impersonations are the frequent “new Burial leaks” you see posted to Twitter, and an aspiring effort from one of dubstep’s less introverted characters, Skrillex.
#burialing
The most famous selfie in all of electronic music. “Hi this is will,” said Will in a note accompanying this image, released on Hyperdub’s website in 2014. It remains by far the starkest, most indisputable Burial picture to date. Hordes of imitators, including fans and fellow artists, followed suit by #burialing. Others just thought, “Whoa, Burial is hot?!”
Burial: The Unofficial Documentary
As you can imagine, it’s actually quite deep being Burial. This, erm, documentary from last year offers a glimpse into his private life, a modest existence involving night buses, lots of McDonald’s, and downtime spent playing Metal Gear Solid. OK, so it’s not actually Burial—the musician Mitch Wade Cole made this bit of parody gold—but in all fairness, Bevan did once use the release of a new video game as a reason for not recording a third album.
A Copy of a Copy: “Claustro”
“Meme,” according to Google, derives from the Greek mimēma, meaning “that which is imitated.” In this sense Burial’s music has always had a memetic quality, reusing breakbeats and wailing diva choruses—the stock photos of rave—as well as taking samples from Playstation games and obscure YouTube covers. New track “Claustro” feels like Burial imitating himself, not just because it reuses samples he’s used before, but because it covers all of his usual bases. Essentially, Bevan’s no longer paying homage to ’90s rave but rather, paying homage to himself. Peak Burial is over; welcome to meta Burial.
https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/how-burial-became-a-meme/
2019-06-25 13:00:00Z
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