Burial

If you’re the kind of music fan who likes to keep a constant ear for what’s hot in the UK, then chances are you’ve noticed that dubstep has made a major impression on everyone from Mike Paradinas and Richard D. James on down. The genre has been touted as the evil twin of grime (more out of timing than anything else) and the next logical step in the ever-evolving international mutations of dub. This incarnation comes to us via two-step, in itself an advancement from ’90s junglisms, and Berlin’s crackle-and-pop dub techno from earlier this decade. Certainly, listening to Burial’s debut album — a debut album of sorts for the entire genre, which has thus far been largely relegated to singles — you can hear the influence of Pole, Basic Channel, Rhythm & Sound as filtered through South London, pirate radio broadcasts, Krust, and drum & bass paranoia. It’s a dark, anonymous record that resists adoration but commands respect. There’s something inertly intimidating about Burial, and that’s part of the attraction. A track like "Wounder” may grab you first, but the rest of it grows on you pretty quickly. For those in search of new sounds, Burial is well worth tracking down.