Burial

Following up 2011's somewhat underwhelming Street Halo EP and a one-off collaboration with Thom Yorke and Four Tet, Burial releases this highly anticipated new release, his first in a year. While dubstep (a genre you can't even discuss without mentioning Burial) has fractured into a hundred different sub-genres collectively known simply as bass music, here Burial is continuing in more or less the same vein as before, using that familiar Burial sound palette. Opening track "Kindred" begins in recognisable territory, with the sound of falling rain and that vocal treatment, while the incoming beat that cuts through the murk is unforgivingly dark, recalling the later days of drum & bass. "Loner" has less of that dubstep gait and slightly more of a 4/4 bent, which is taken even further on unsettling closer "Ashtray Wasp." The three tracks on Kindred are the best work we've heard from Burial in some time and also by far the darkest. Currently only available digitally, this is a release worth snapping up on vinyl when it finally comes out.