Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
You Should Listen to Untrue by Burial
77 Plays1 year ago
On this episode of You Should Listen to This: Tanner makes Bat listen to Untrue by Burial for the first time.
Tanner will take Bat through this beloved introspective dubstep album filled with vivid imagery of isolation in South London. We discuss each song and what makes this album so special to Tanner, as well as millions of others. Let's hope Bat likes it.
---
Thank you so much for listening.
Intro and outro music by Jake Dotson
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Comeback and Episode Introduction
00:00:12
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome back to You Should Listen To This. It's been a while. My name is Tanner and with me as always is... The infamous, the illustrious. Yeah, it's me, Bap.
Burial's Personal Impact on Tanner
00:00:29
Speaker
So yeah, it's been a little bit of a break, but we're back and better than ever, dare I say. You could say that.
00:00:38
Speaker
Today, I'm going to bring you through an album that I love with a passion. Everyone seems to have a story of when burial first made an impact on them, when his music finally hits.
00:00:56
Speaker
For me, it happened in 2014. I was in high school and his EP rival dealer had just come out. And I sat at my computer and I listened to this 30 minute EP with the nicest headphones I had. And I sat through the whole thing with my jaw on the floor.
00:01:14
Speaker
What I was listening to, it sounded alien at the time. It sounded like it was from another planet. An alien handed me this EP on a silver platter. It was unlike anything I had ever heard. I became obsessed with the EP. I burned it onto a CD because the only thing in my car at the time
00:01:35
Speaker
was a CD player. So I burned it onto a CD and I would play this three song EP on repeat while I drove around sulking in the rain being angsty. It was the soundtrack that my life needed at that time. And I started to dig into who burial was and learn about his music and
00:01:55
Speaker
if there was anything else that sounded like this. I also didn't really have friends that appreciated this type of music at the time. It was difficult for these teenage boys to understand why I loved this music so much. They just thought I was being pretentious and annoying. You were also a teenage boy.
00:02:20
Speaker
Yes, and I was also being pretentious and annoying. To be honest, back then I felt a little embarrassed to be listening to it. It felt like, not a guilty pleasure, but like, not the music you play around friends.
Dubstep Origins and Cultural Context
00:02:35
Speaker
And I read people online talking about Untrue, his breakout 2007 album, the album that we're talking about today. So of course I went to listen to it immediately. And when I discovered
00:02:49
Speaker
the album is already seven or eight years old at the time.
00:02:52
Speaker
And it still sounded so otherworldly to me. And I started to do some research into what this genre was. And I was really, really, really confused because it's dubstep, right? Everywhere you go says, this is dubstep. This is a dubstep album. And teenage me, I was like, well, this doesn't make any sense. This isn't dubstep. This isn't, this isn't, you know, this wasn't dubstep. This wasn't the dubstep that I knew.
00:03:21
Speaker
Um, so I was very confused. Yeah, it wasn't. Yeah, you know, like, oh, oh my God. You know, Skrillex bro step, right? Which we love. Sure. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. But but this is true original dubstep.
00:03:39
Speaker
Yes, this is true. OG dub step, which, you know, it turns out that that's what the name dub step exactly implies what the genre is. It's dub music and two step rhythms combined together. It's a genre that originated in the UK in the early 2000s as a sort of counterculture to
00:04:04
Speaker
the huge UK club scene at the time, House Music UK House was huge, it was extravagant, it was bright, it was happy, it was the hot thing in the UK. But all these dubstep clubs started popping up and back then you weren't a real dubstep fan unless you went to all the classic UK clubs.
00:04:27
Speaker
And you had to lose yourself in a pack of cigarettes in the corner of the club, swaying away to the music for hours and hours and hours. It was a meditative, dark, mysterious, and oftentimes bleak genre. And it was meant to sound like the true London experience, like walking down an alley at 3 a.m. and it's pouring rain, and you just finished four warm beers with your mates.
00:04:53
Speaker
I always think of the show Skins, Skins UK, obviously. Yeah. This music kind of feels like that show. It's dirty, it's grimy, it's melancholic, it's angsty, it's ethereal. That's what Dubstep is. Or that's what Dubstep was. Originally. We could, I mean, we could do a whole other podcast about Dubstep and the death of Dubstep.
00:05:15
Speaker
But we won't. We won't.
Introduction to 'Untrue' and Burial's Anonymity
00:05:17
Speaker
Sadly. But we're here to talk about Burial and 2007 and Untrue, an album that Pitchfork called the most important electronic music album of this century. That's a long time. Yeah. Well, yeah. So far, I guess. Oh, I didn't I didn't know if it meant like the century, henceforth or the century, starting with the year 2000. Starting with the year 2000.
00:05:42
Speaker
It's crazy to think that we've only been counting for 2,000 years. Well, that's, I mean, that's not entirely true. No, but you know what I mean. Like, that's when we started to count years in the way that we, I don't know.
00:05:58
Speaker
So in 2007, when this came out, it was coming directly off the heels of his Critical Smash 2006 debut album. An album that, funnily enough, didn't feature a ton of vocal samples at all. And he followed it up with this masterpiece.
00:06:18
Speaker
And burial, he almost never gives interviews. In fact, most people back then didn't even know what he looked like, his real name, nothing like that. The first time he ever voluntarily showed his face was in a post in 2014 in which he apologized to fans because he was going to stop making music for a while because Dark Souls 2 had just come out and he wanted to play it.
00:06:43
Speaker
That was when we first learned his name, William Bevin. And he's a nerd in every way. And that includes a music nerd. He explained the title of this album, Untrue, only once. Here's a direct quote. He said, it's like when someone's not acting like themselves. They're off key. Something's wrong. An atmosphere has entered the room.
00:07:03
Speaker
burial tested this album by driving around south london in the dead of night listening to tracks he had good car speakers of course because you kind of had to have good car speakers with early dubstep you know the there's a lot of low-end rumbling bass and droning bass
00:07:21
Speaker
that doesn't show up if you have shitty speakers that are all mids. You need that range. And this album feels cold and it makes you look inward, but at the same time it feels comforting and it feels like you're being seen. This album was written in two weeks.
00:07:38
Speaker
in a single track audio editing software known as Soundforge, as in he edited this entire album, made this entire album in a software similar to what I edit this podcast in, which is mind-blowing to me.
00:07:53
Speaker
not a digital audio workspace like you would typically get. And that's what makes this album sound so raw and so DIY because it is, you know, there's so much insane lore to this album and I could go on and on and on about it.
Personal Experiences with 'Untrue'
00:08:07
Speaker
But the impact of this album speaks for itself
00:08:10
Speaker
It's one of the most influential electronic music albums of all time. All of your favorite producers all had a burial phase. This is the greatest dubstep record of all time, in my opinion, and one of my favorite albums of all time, Full Stop. For now, before we keep going, I just want to know what you knew about burial going into this and what you were expecting going into this album.
00:08:36
Speaker
Okay, yeah, so I first heard this album a few months ago. I listened to it all the way through just one time, I think. Well, yeah, I just listened to it once. So I actually had already heard this. I didn't know that. Yeah, I realized I was like, oh, no, that's probably going to be an album that Tanner is going to want to pick for the podcast, which is still completely valid. I just got like a head start.
00:09:06
Speaker
all right all right um i knew that it was well you kind of know what i knew i knew that it was super popular super acclaimed great dubstep album of true dubstep or i guess the original type of dubstep but i basically knew nothing and i guess i still not that i still know nothing but i also didn't i i still
00:09:32
Speaker
didn't know anything until you just told me some more about it. I wasn't even thinking about burial. I was like, oh, let me listen to this. Not even connecting with the fact that someone made this. I was listening to this music as if it was just created out of thin air funnily enough.
00:09:53
Speaker
I think, you know, I think that's burial's goal. You know, there's like three pictures of him that exist on the internet. He doesn't want to be known. He doesn't want to be famous. Like he just wants to make music. And I think how you experienced it is exactly how he wants people to experience it, knowing nothing about him, who he is. It's like burial, the name is just a symbol attached to a piece of music and that's it.
00:10:19
Speaker
Well, perfect. You're welcome then, burial. We should get into the album, though.
00:10:25
Speaker
Okay, yeah, so this album, it opens up with a 46 second untitled track and it provides a little bit of insight into the tone of the album, letting us know what we're getting into. It's immediately this dark and crackly sound and we hear a sampled voice say, I'll show you light now, it burns.
00:10:51
Speaker
Forever there are no drums on
Exploring 'Archangel' and Its Influences
00:10:53
Speaker
this track and it's just a dark and gloomy. We don't have to stick too much It's it's really just a tone setter But it quickly switches directly into the first I guess real song on the album Archangel and this this song further opens us up into the world of burial and untrue and
00:11:12
Speaker
And before we go further, I just want to say that there are dozens of websites dedicated to finding the seemingly endless samples that are contained within this album. And I would love to point out how fucking cool each sample is, but I can't do that. But I do want to highlight just a few of these samples throughout the album, because that's really what this album is built on is these vocal samples. Every single track here contains a vocal sample, usually multiple vocal samples.
00:11:39
Speaker
Sometimes they're distorted beyond recognition, and sometimes you think the sample is one thing, but it's actually another thing. With that being said, Archangel is a banger. It's a hit. It's probably Burial's most well-known song. It has, what, like 28 million streams on Spotify, which is far and above all the other tracks on this album and in the rest of his discography. The main vocals that are being sampled here are from... Well, first of all, do you recognize vocal sample here?
00:12:09
Speaker
No. Okay, so this is a sample of Ray J, a song by Ray J called One Wish. And Burial likes to sample R&B a lot. We'll see this a lot throughout the album. And that I'm sure you picked up on this that that R&B shows up a lot.
00:12:24
Speaker
on this album. And the vocals are immediately evocative of this longing and this loneliness that burial feels so deeply, that a lot of people feel so deeply. The lyrics go, holding you, couldn't be alone, couldn't be alone, loving you, couldn't be alone, kissing you, tell me I belong. And Ray J's voice keeps getting chopped and screwed and pitch shifted and manipulated.
00:12:51
Speaker
repeats and it cycles and it's that meditative two-step style you know that that 130 bpm classic dub and but it's taken to the most introspective place dubstep wasn't always at this introspective the instrumental sample in the background what almost sounds like some strings like an orchestra but it's it's hard to tell the way that burial uses them
00:13:15
Speaker
but it comes from the Metal Gear Solid 2 soundtrack, which is further proof that Burial is just a nerd making nerd music in the best way possible. This song immediately puts you in the zone to experience the rest of the album. There's these incredibly dense layers of sampled sounds and they just blanket over your ear and you take off down the album, rolling downhill. This song is super popular for a reason. Sorry.
00:13:44
Speaker
I talked a lot. I love this song. It's his most popular song. Tell me what you think. Yeah. So Untitled is just an opening introduction, not meant to be a real song, but all I wrote was
00:14:02
Speaker
It's kind of an ambient outside sounds track to open up and contextualize the album. It's like we're put in a city dropped into the sonic world of Untrue. And I kind of like that it opens in that way because it makes the album feel more like a story and more cohesive even though it is like an electronic
00:14:26
Speaker
dubstep album i think it's still cool to set the scene like that and it makes the opening of archangel like going into that track it makes it more impactful i think and i love that and
00:14:41
Speaker
I don't know how to say that. I'll just say what my notes were for. I said I like the simplicity of the sound even though there are a lot of good sonic layers to this track. So even though it's like very richly layered,
Themes of Urban Isolation in 'Untrue'
00:14:56
Speaker
it still amounts to like a minimalist
00:15:00
Speaker
sound, if that makes sense. But it's immediately catchy and dance trancey and I like it. I said I immediately recognized the sample that Rosalia used because I was listening to this track and I was like, where do I know that like little melody from? But it's from the Rosalia song. I don't know. I can't remember the name of the actual song. Candy, right? Yeah. Yeah. I love that track. But I was like,
00:15:26
Speaker
Oh, I didn't know that that was a little melody sample from the song, but I guess it would technically be like, it would be sampling this song, but then sampling Ray J.
00:15:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's yeah. According to who sampled the Rosalia song, samples this song specifically. Right, right. I know. But I just mean like, you know, you follow the you follow the tracks. Yeah. But it's easy to see why she would sample it because it's it's such a simple little melody, but like so catchy. But this makes me think of a mid to late
00:16:01
Speaker
2000s club scenes, not that I know about any of that from experience, but I could see people just blissed out dancing to this, like eyes closed, just completely like moving, feeling the energy and vibes of the music and the drugs coursing through veins and like sparkly, you know, club, like kind of grimy, but you know.
00:16:30
Speaker
That's how I see it. Yeah, you're seeing it exactly right, which just shows how expertly this world is crafted, this world of urban isolation.
00:16:43
Speaker
Oh yeah. And you mentioned how there's a lot of R&B samples. When you said that I was thinking like, I would say that this is, I mean, obviously it's an electronic dubstep album, but to me it's kind of like also like R&B in a way because of just how influential R&B is to the album.
00:17:03
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. I mean, you know, dub has its roots in reggae, obviously. And so there's always been a fascination with this with these kind of taking of beautiful voices and and changing them up and making them sound unrecognizable. Yeah, I mean, some people even call this album a pop album. Well, yeah, I mean, genres can can converge and often do all the time.
00:17:31
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and it's easy to look back and say those things. I mean, this was a genre defining redefining album when it came out. Like no one knew how to label it, right? Only now can we look back and are able to really say things about it. I mean, back then people were debating if this was even a dubstep album, you know? Why?
00:17:51
Speaker
Well, because dubstep usually wasn't this DIY sounding. It wasn't as raw. It wasn't as... This feels like a very personal album, despite it being anonymous. Like it's personal to each person. And so while dubstep was always kind of a meditative kind of ethereal genre, it never made you look inward like this did.
00:18:18
Speaker
that. I find that so hard to believe. I don't understand what this album like I guess I would have to hear other dubstep of the time. And I have some songs that I want to send you after this that are some early dubstep songs.
00:18:33
Speaker
I just don't see what makes this album specifically so introspective as opposed to other dubstep stuff. Other dubstep music and even like, I guess to me this isn't like an emotional album. Oh, interesting. Maybe I'm just hollow.
00:18:50
Speaker
Well, let's see if you're actually a hollow. Let's see if you're a cold-hearted bitch. Let's move. Okay. The song Near Dark, the song immediately after Archangel. Why don't you, since you're so, since you're a miss, oh, this isn't emotional, tell me what you think of this song.
00:19:12
Speaker
Okay, yeah, so there's a clear and clean break between the previous track and this one, so between Archangel and Near Dork.
Emotional Nuances in 'Near Dark'
00:19:20
Speaker
The beat comes in and it's so similar to the previous song that I, like, while I'm listening to it, I'm like, is it the same beat as the previous song? And it keeps up that kind of upbeat danciness.
00:19:33
Speaker
but it has a little bit more darkness to it and there's some fun stuff going on in the production that makes it sound a little complex and yeah like this song I could totally see like being in a club and because we have that sample that's like I can't take my eyes off you it is very like you're making eyes at someone in a club while you're dancing
00:19:57
Speaker
and it's like mysterious and cool, but I don't know how emotionally deep that goes. I'm not angry.
00:20:08
Speaker
No. Okay. So and we've got a lot of layers. We've got a lot of when you listen to this song, you don't hear the melancholy, the euphoria, the claustrophobia. There's even like this feeling of like like liberation, like it just it's a power. I mean, across this whole album, it's just you're not feeling the emotional impact of of are you getting the themes of like like the themes of the album, like urban alienation, longing, lost connections, lost love, things like this.
00:20:38
Speaker
oh i guess i didn't really i mean i get it subconsciously maybe but it's like it that just to me it's like what else is it gonna be about like it just seems too obvious like i'm like oh well yeah it's about that that's a given i just didn't think that it like
00:20:53
Speaker
Okay, I like the industrial ness of the album like it's such an industrial sounding album and I really love that there's like such a strong juxtaposition between the vocal samples and like the emotion within the vocals juxtaposed with the sounds like the very deep bass and
00:21:18
Speaker
I don't I don't know how to explain the samples other than like industry. Like it sounds gray. It sounds charcoal. It sounds chrome. It sounds like a lot of like metallic buildings, concrete. Like it just sounds like those elements.
00:21:37
Speaker
Yeah. And yeah, some aesthetic inspirations for this album are things like Blade Runner and, you know, the cyberpunk aesthetic and, you know, brutalism. I get brutalism. I don't get it's funny because I don't get anything like cyberpunk. I don't get any sort of like technology or anything. I just get like brutalist architecture type vibes. But but like very non tech. Yeah.
00:22:05
Speaker
other than the little coin sounds, which are very video game. So it totally makes sense that he's a nerd, because the coin sample comes in, and I just think I'm collecting coins in a video game.
00:22:20
Speaker
Funny enough, that isn't a coin sound. It does sound like a coin, but it's a bullet casing falling on the ground. Oh, that totally makes sense. Yeah, very nerdy, very industrial and perfect. And it comes from the Metal Gear Solid games.
00:22:36
Speaker
Okay, okay that makes sense it sounds very like coin like so I just like called it like the coin sound I didn't know absolutely I didn't think it was actually a literal like coin sound I just didn't know what to call it and then that continues on in the next track too and and I feel like It kind of keeps going in and out throughout the album. I don't know. Yeah, there are musical motifs that come Yeah, there are and and it's oh
00:22:58
Speaker
It's hard for me because all these songs, the first time I heard this album, I was like, OK, yeah, I mean, I like this. Like, who wouldn't like this? It's just very middle of the road stuff. OK, to be fair, you know, some people say that the right the right way to enjoy an album like this is to blast it through good speakers, close your eyes and just immerse yourself in the sounds at a club, preferably. I was going to say, yeah.
00:23:28
Speaker
not really dancing more swaying and feeling. Yeah, and that's exactly when I listen to it, I'm put exactly in that scenario. I'm like, oh, this would be playing like loudly with people like with their eyes closed, dancing in a way that's like not on purpose, like just they're moving because they have to.
00:23:53
Speaker
you know what I mean? When I was like at a party in college there on the tv was like a it was like a I don't think it was a live stream but it was basically like a live stream of someone like deejaying and people dancing at some club and I don't know where or like what it was because
00:24:12
Speaker
I didn't put it on the TV, but, you know, one of those videos and like you could just watch the people and you know, they're like probably on drugs and they're like, they don't care that they're being filmed or whatever or live streamed and they're just dancing. And there was like this girl and like she was just, you know, dancing like that. Like you you're not thinking about it. You're just going. You're just feeling it. And I think of that like video or whatever that we were watching as I listened to this.
00:24:40
Speaker
That's kind of like what the album is supposed to make you feel. You're supposed to feel like you... Well then, boom, done. When you're in that club, you are isolating yourself. You are looking inward. You are meditating to this album. That's what you're doing at the club. Nothing makes you think about your own thoughts more than high quality sounds like this. All these evocative vocal samples.
00:25:08
Speaker
I mean, with this song specifically, you know, it's the crackling on this song always sounds like raindrops on an umbrella over your head to me. And there's like these little jingly high hats in the background. The sample here
00:25:24
Speaker
is How Do I Say? by Usher and I Can't Take My Eyes Off You. I envied you. And it's over a sample of a Hans Zimmer score from the 2001 movie Black Hawk Down. Black Hawk Down? The porn? Hawk. Down. Hawk.
00:25:42
Speaker
Oh, I'm not as familiar with that one. But the part that is I envied you, according to the internet, that sample is still yet to be discovered. I guess they don't know what that one is. And again, this is a song that creates a dark and moody and haunting tone. And there are these absolutely menacing, super low-end bass hits here that just sound, it sounds like it would be insane live.
00:26:11
Speaker
And yeah, I love the bullet casing falling to this ground. That sound effect, I think it's I think it's really good. It adds a lot to it. Yeah, I like it, but sounds very cool. But it all sounds the same to you, I guess. You mean all the songs? Oh, I wouldn't say that they all sound the same completely. It's just I have to, you know, if I'm like, OK, we're going to talk about this track now, I'm like, which one is that? OK. All right. All right.
00:26:40
Speaker
I mean, do you just remember immediately how it sounds? OK, so to be fair, yeah, I mean, my first experience with burial is thinking that it all sounded very similar.
Club Experience and Introspective Moments
00:26:53
Speaker
Still enjoying it. It does sound similar. It does. You're right. I mean, it's all around that. Yeah, it's all around that 130 BPM mark. It all hits that half step beat. It has those, you know, snares that are always snaring away.
00:27:09
Speaker
the snares that ensnare you. Yeah, exactly. And this album is meant to be played front to back as a whole. Right. It flows. And if you're in a club, you know, you're not gonna. That's how you want it to be. You want the sounds to morph. And although the club mix of this album is a little bit different. OK, that's not relevant. But yeah, let's keep it pushing.
00:27:33
Speaker
Yeah, with ghost hardware, which I love some of these titles of these songs. Like what is I don't know what ghost hardware means. Of course, burial has never explained it. No, it's ghost hardware. What does it goes hardware mean to you? What does that mean? It's something that like you just have to feel in your heart. It's very emotional and introspective. And if you don't know, I can't explain it. It's just okay. All right. All right. Well, okay.
00:27:59
Speaker
So to be fair, Ghost Hardware is a song that I didn't always love. It honestly had to grow on me. Is it that one? Yeah, every, okay, every time that I hear this, every time I hear this track, I'm like, is this the one that's like, love you? And then I'm like, it must be because it would fit in with this song so well. And then it comes in and I'm like, yeah, it is that track.
00:28:24
Speaker
Yeah, I really like this song. This is one that, once it grew on me, I really grew to love it. Wait a second. Is The Love You a Beyonce sample? I don't believe so. I think this is... Oh. Because I know that there's a Beyonce sample on Untrue. Later. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I don't know. I just heard the Love You, and it sounded like it was in her register, but I guess... So the main runs that you're hearing, the... Uh-huh.
00:28:54
Speaker
That's all Christina Aguilera. What? When does she go eat? When she performs beautiful live on Saturday Night Live in 2004. It's specifically from that performance.
Haunting Qualities of 'Ghost Hardware'
00:29:08
Speaker
Oh, I got to check that out. Which Burial does this kind of thing a lot where he takes very specific vocal samples. He's like, I don't want the song. I want this specific moment. Yeah, that's my favorite.
00:29:22
Speaker
And words aren't really being said in this song a whole bunch besides love you. This song is a lot more abstract than previous songs. Is it? Yes, it's less it's far less structured and it's it feels a lot more haunting. The synth is the synth hit that, you know, it almost sounds like the prowler music sting from Into the Spider-Verse. You know, the. Oh.
00:29:49
Speaker
Yeah, it's absolutely menacing, terrifying. I love that. I love that sound. That's a favorite of mine. And you know, this song, it really does sound like a 90s club track.
00:30:02
Speaker
that has been decaying as we listen to it. It's, again, very ethereal. And there's this contrast at play between these angelic vocal samples and the menacing low end. And it's this tug of war between heaven and hell. And it's all happening in the dingiest UK club you've ever been to. It's just so cool. I don't know about heaven and hell. Well, that's what it feels like to me. Oh, OK, OK, OK. I'll allow it.
00:30:31
Speaker
The underlying synth melody across this song also comes from the Metal Gear Solid 2 soundtrack and Hideo Kojima's impact. Yes, we love her.
00:30:42
Speaker
This song continues the descent into South London that we have been experiencing, and it's only getting darker and colder, and I love it, because there's this comfort in the stillness, in the vastness. There's a comfort in the isolation. It perfectly tees us up to fall deep into the depths of London on the next song. I didn't even read my notes. Okay. Yes, please, please, please.
00:31:09
Speaker
I said, ah, I can't tell if this drum track is different than the previous track. Something happens with this album where I forget the previous track entirely, but in my mind, it's the same as the one currently playing. There's more fun vocal samples in this, which we touched on. Some fizzly typewriter sounding white noise almost. This music reminds me of a Rorschach test.
00:31:35
Speaker
I love the darker background elements that cut in this song. There's some really cool layered effects that really bubble up. Yeah, the amount of layers. Yeah, it's like a nice croissant. A croissant? Yeah, you know, all the layers, the flaky layers. I could have drawn my croissant. Good reference. Yeah. So, okay. Endorphin, it's an interlude of sorts. Oh, is it? I mean, did you get that from it? There's no drums, right? There's no drums on this track.
00:32:05
Speaker
I wasn't thinking of it as an interlude. That's fair. That makes sense. There's kind of no interludes. Yeah, it's all an interlude in a way. That's a great point. I mean, life is an interlude. We're in limbo constantly. That's what this album is about, is just living in this state of repeating your actions over and over and over again. For what? You're a mannequin, you're nothing. It's great.
00:32:33
Speaker
right um yeah i said opens with an interesting little alien dude talking to me and some spacey sounds and vocal samples this album has a lot of samples of someone just vocalizing which i can really get behind but what is it yeah a lot of stimming going on
00:32:55
Speaker
Yeah, this track has an early 2000s ethereal quality to it.
Atmospheric Tones in 'Endorphin'
00:32:59
Speaker
They're all ethereal, but this gives more etherealness to it and it's giving Y2K. And then the ending of it is like the song is being whisked away, which I really like. Wow.
00:33:15
Speaker
I like that. I really like that. Because it really does kind of... Like I said, at this point of the album, we're fully rolling down the hill into London, into the sewers of London. And this kind of... I call this one a vibe check. This song a little bit of a vibe check. Because the way that it bridges the gap from the first part of the album to the next part of the album just feels really... But yes, I like the way it's whisked away at the end. You're so right about that.
00:33:44
Speaker
Yeah, I like that. I think that's sweet. You get more of that crackling sound. And again, it sounds like rain to me. It sounds like rain on the windshield as you sit parked on an empty street and the traffic lights change on a timer despite no cars being there to receive the signals. And the city continues to breathe when the people leave. There is nothing outside your door besides cold air and loneliness. And yet, you feel enticed to go for a walk.
00:34:14
Speaker
really? i mean i get the sentiment but i just feel like it's more like you it's more like you know foggy clearing and like there's some lights in the sky and a little alien dude silhouette in the distance
00:34:31
Speaker
Definitely. I get a lot of alien vibes on this whole album. Yeah. But like not scary alien, just like like a little alien guy. Yeah. Like like classic big eye gray alien guy. Yeah. Like cute. Like, hey, what are the samples on Endorphin?
00:34:50
Speaker
Yeah, so we got Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as the main vocal sample here. Oh, of course. Okay, so it's from the Silent Hill 3 soundtrack. That makes sense. Okay. Another video game soundtrack. I guess I'll just have to go kind of explore later.
00:35:07
Speaker
Please do. And there are some great videos out there and articles that break down a lot of the samples on this
Impact of Sampling YouTube Covers
00:35:14
Speaker
album. It's really interesting. And the next song actually has one of my favorite samples on the whole album, Etched Head Plate. This song is so fucking good. I love this song so much. It's like if aliens were British and depressed. And they are. And they are.
00:35:34
Speaker
Brits are aliens who are depressed. That's what I was thinking. That's what I was thinking. My bad. And this is this is one that I really like to like just jam out to the most. You know, the rhythm is just like really swinging and it's satisfying. And there's like these bubbly little synths that are like dipping in and out and they're like inflating and deflating. It sounds like this song is like
00:35:59
Speaker
breathing. And it's just really cool. The vocal sample on this track, people quickly recognized it as Angel by Amanda Perez, classic 2003 R&B song. But after people, you know, were doing some digging and noticing some things that were slightly different from the Amanda Perez version, they, Burial is known as a YouTube digger. Like, have you heard of a crate digger?
00:36:27
Speaker
Like someone who looks in crates? Specifically in terms of vinyl. Oh, oh yeah. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. So yeah, exactly. So burial is known as a YouTube digger. I don't think you're allowed to say that. I knew you were going to say something.
00:36:44
Speaker
I'm sorry. But after an extensive search, the sample was actually found and it's a cover of the song Angel by Amanda Perez, but it's by a young woman just sitting in her bedroom and it's recorded on a cheap webcam and it was uploaded to YouTube in 2007. YouTube user Carmelma401 and once people found out who the vocal sample was, they flooded
00:37:12
Speaker
her cover on YouTube, the video with love in the comments. And then Burial sent her a letter thanking her for changing his life and helping him find his voice. And he sent her a bunch of Burial merch. She had no idea who Burial was, of course, but suddenly she was being embraced by this community of music nerds.
00:37:34
Speaker
Oh, that's really cool and really sweet. I love that. Yeah, it's it's super cool. I love that story a lot. And this and it's something that he's done a few times. He will sample a cover from YouTube sung into a cheap webcam as opposed to the actual song. Yeah. And that's really cool. But also, like, I feel like does that get you out of copyright?
00:37:58
Speaker
I mean, to be on Spotify, you have to just pay the songwriting rights for the song, I think. Because it's fair use, I think. Anyway, don't quote me on this. Don't quote me on media law. This is a legal podcast. You can take our legal advice. Okay, so dare I say this song is fun. Do you agree with me?
00:38:23
Speaker
Oh, 100 percent. I think all of it's fun. But it's it's fun in a way that still makes me think of cobblestone streets in like Green West or whatever London at night in the rain alone. You know, he's consistent. The theming across this album is very, very consistent.
00:38:43
Speaker
But to me, I know you probably don't agree with this, but to me, all the songs are still so diverse. The grooves just, you know, the different grooves going on just really, I don't know. It's it's impressive how he can stay consistent, but still feel so diverse. And also the percussion on this track is the sound that it makes when you flip through your inventory in Metal Gear Solid 4. So cool.
00:39:13
Speaker
Barial's first and only tweet that he since deleted was just Metal Gear Solid 4. Like, it just said Metal Gear Solid. That was his only tweet. But he took it back. But he took it back. Yeah, and do you have anything more to say about Etched Headplate? I mean, I love the way the vocals change pitch and the ethereal background of this track as well. And I agree with what you said, and I like it, and it's good. Woohoo.
00:39:42
Speaker
Woo-hoo. Yeah, this album is very woo-hoo, I agree. Uh-huh. And then we go to McDonald's.
Solitude Imagery in 'In McDonald's'
00:39:49
Speaker
Yeah, let's go. Let's go to McDonald's. What did you think of this song in McDonald's? Okay, first of all, I love this title. Are the titles armatory or do they have meaning? Do you even know?
00:40:03
Speaker
Some of the titles are arbitrary and have never been explained. Some of them, the few quotes that burial has given, they have been explained. In McDonald's is kind of like, I don't remember the quote exactly, I didn't write it down, but it's supposed to be like being in McDonald's, not being bothered to check your phone, just staring out the window and just getting lost in your own brain.
00:40:30
Speaker
If I'm in a McDonald's, I don't want to look anywhere but my phone. Yeah. Well, this was 2007, so there was not a lot to do on your phone back then. There was not a lot to do in McDonald's. No, they had play places back then. OK. So yeah. Well, what did you think of it?
00:40:52
Speaker
I said the sonic landscape for this album is really cool and I think that's well exemplified in the intro to this track. It might not sound like much but as you listen you become aware of just how much is going on and then it ends. I think this song is more like in an alleyway.
00:41:12
Speaker
I like that. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't give me McDonald's. I was like, oh, I can't wait to listen to it in McDonald's. And then I listened to it and I was like, this isn't giving McDonald's. This isn't giving like neon yellow fluorescent red and like, hi, can I take your order? Like this is giving like transcendence. Yeah. I mean, yeah, you're right. You're right.
00:41:36
Speaker
I guess that's the point, like you're transcending the McDonald's that you're like. Oh, yeah. I mean, there's there's it's you know, it plays into a lot of the anti-capitalist themes that burial shows a lot in his music. Oh, was I supposed to be getting that from this album? Well, you're contrasting the brutalist sounds with the McDonald's like it's just. I think that's pretty subtle.
00:41:59
Speaker
Oh, I mean, yeah. Well, I mean, is it subtle if the song is called it? It's still subtle. OK, fair enough to be anti-capitalist. Like you could be pro. Like it depends on what your perspective is when you're listening to the album. I love pro-capitalist dubstep.
00:42:19
Speaker
Yeah. So Brostep? Yeah, exactly. I do love Skrillex. I don't think Skrillex, I hope he's not capitalist, but comrade Skrillex. The reason Brostep came to be is because of capitalism and it's all thanks to Skrillex. But it's not Skrillex's fault. He was just, he was just having fun. There are some, yeah, you're right. There are some things that led up to, you know, the creation of it, but
00:42:47
Speaker
don't hate the player hate the game you're right you're right there but there's no drums on this track did you notice that how there's no drums on this track yeah sure it's what does that mean to me though like
00:43:05
Speaker
It's, it's just, so for me, there's a song that comes up that doesn't have drums. It's like an interview. It's a break. It feels like an interview. Yes. You know what song doesn't have drums? What? When Doves Cry. What's that? By Prince.
00:43:23
Speaker
Oh, that's right. You talked to me about this before. We're not talking about Prince today. No, I know. But if we're going to say, like, did you did you notice that this song doesn't have drums? I'm like, OK, sure. But like, like when it's a when dubs cry, but when dubs cry, you don't notice that it doesn't have drums until you're like, oh, this song doesn't have drums. Oh.
00:43:43
Speaker
For me, this song paints a vivid picture of lost love with just a few vocal lines and in just two minutes uses an Aaliyah vocal sample where she says, because at once upon a time it was you who I adored. And she says that twice. It sounds very claustrophobic as this rain cloud throbs around you. You are mythologizing your long lost love.
00:44:08
Speaker
You're about to meet them for the first time in a while in this McDonald's. Then in the last moments of the song, we get the word spoken. You look different, slow down and pitch down. And it's set in a matter of fact, almost disappointed kind of way. You see someone that you once placed on a pedestal, someone that you shared your life with, someone that you knew, someone that knew you.
00:44:31
Speaker
And now you stand here in this McDonald's, no feelings attached to this person disconnected from their reality and the atmosphere suffocates you. And all you can say is you look different, but so do you and you don't look in the mirror ever. This is one of my favorites on the album. Absolutely heart wrenching stuff. And you want all of that from this song? Yeah. That's crazy.
00:44:58
Speaker
This album captures emotions for me that no album has been able to capture. Words aren't able to capture emotions sometimes. It just has to be the soundscape. And I think Barial does that so incredibly perfectly. It's just so evocative of what he's trying to do. Okay. I mean, that's fair.
00:45:23
Speaker
But we can move on. We can go into... Well, I want to do your comment justice because that's a very deep connection that you have with... in McDonald's.
00:45:38
Speaker
And I and I respect it and I appreciate it. I'm just really like surprised and taken aback and emotionally moved by your experience with the song. And I'm just like, I don't get that much emotion from any part of this album. So I'm just like, OK, I see it. I get it. It's just not what I had experienced with my time with it. But I understand.
00:46:08
Speaker
To be fair, a lot of people, and I said this at the top of the podcast, a lot of people have personal experiences when it comes to this album.
Personal Connections to 'Untrue'
00:46:18
Speaker
You hear people talk about this album and it's always, I listened to this album during this time in my life or this song reminded me of this thing in my life.
00:46:27
Speaker
This album is very personal for everyone that loves it. It is like made specifically for them. And I think that's part of the benefit of, you know, no real lyrics type of album. It allows the listener to kind of paint their own picture on the canvas. Right.
00:46:45
Speaker
you know, Burial just kind of creates these themes and these soundscapes and these settings and he lets you take off with it. And I just think it's magical. And, you know, I've been listening to this album for years so I can understand why, you know, this album has gotten me through awful times in my life and...
00:47:06
Speaker
It's been my soundtrack for so many ups and downs. And so I think with that personal connection, obviously comes the meanings that I'm getting from this. And of course I get why after a few weeks of listening, you wouldn't get all that from a two minute, no drums interlude. Well, thank you for saying that.
00:47:28
Speaker
But yeah, let's go to the emotional core of the album, the title track of the album, Untrue. Untrue, yay. OK, do you like this song? You said yay.
00:47:41
Speaker
OK, so this is you recognize the sample here. Of course. It's Beyonce. Of course. Resentment from 2006. What album was that? Favorite one of my favorite. So I think her untitled. I'm untitled. Her self-titled. It's really one of your one of one of your favorite Beyonce songs. Yes. Wow. I didn't know that.
00:48:08
Speaker
Yes, it is a really great deep cut. Very, I think, I want to say one of her best, but she has so many great songs. That's like, how do you say one of her best? But I have you listened to it. This is not a Beyonce podcast. Yes, I've heard the song.
00:48:26
Speaker
Oh, okay. It's one that I liked to practice singing a lot in the past. And I really like identify and relate to the emotion of it. So I was really like pleased to hear it on this track. It took me just like a moment. I'm like, wait a second. I know that. Oh, it's Beyonce. It's resentment. Like what a great song to be sampling.
00:48:51
Speaker
Well, then I feel like if you love this song so much, you were able to pick up on the themes a lot easier for this song? Um, no. Themes of betrayal and abandonment? Well, yeah, but like... Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:07
Speaker
There we go. Amazing. I said, ah, a classic. This is the title track and it samples Miss Beyonce. It took me only a moment to place the sample just because it's such an interesting context for it to be in. It really matches the burial vibe, but it is definitely a little jarring to hear it on this album.
00:49:25
Speaker
Did she clear this? There's some more industrial darkness happening in this track and some pops that are very of its time, some very deep intense bass in this that I love. So yeah, again, I'm just like listening to this and I'm like, this is good electronic music, but I'm not really like getting much more.
00:49:43
Speaker
Obviously, I get the tone of the sample and everything. It just seems very upfront. I don't want to say shallow because it has a negative connotation. The vocal sample is just one piece of the emotional puzzle because the emotion doesn't just come from the vocal sample.
00:50:05
Speaker
I know, but even if you don't know, like, if you're just listening to it, you're gonna know what you're supposed to be feeling just based on the vocal sample. Maybe you should listen to his first album where there's way less vocal samples and see. I'll probably get much less from it.
00:50:24
Speaker
For me, the motifs continue on this album. The motifs of love, lost love, abandonment. And this feels like an epic track. It really feels like an epic. There's layers on top of layers on top of layers. The low end is rumbling and it's crackling and there's this...
00:50:44
Speaker
force in the kicks, in the snares, and it's pelting you in the face, these kicks and these snares, seemingly without limit as this entire thing plays on loop over and over and over and over again in your head. This betrayal that you've felt, that's what this song is really, is you're playing this betrayal over and over and over again in your head. There's a part on this song that happens about
00:51:11
Speaker
maybe halfway through, where everything kind of gets stripped back and it feels like the dread is over, but then it slowly comes back piece by piece and it all comes back into focus and just pelts you in the face yet again. You ruminate again. This track would be awesome to hear in a club. It's a groovy track. It's a great track. It's the title track for a reason. It's the climax of the album, right? It's a good song. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Do you have anything else you want to say about it?
00:51:42
Speaker
i think the back half of this album it gets a little bit like i have less to say about it there's less things that like stand out because it's like it's the same kind of motifs and sounds and whatnot so i mean i like this one but what i like about it is what i like about the other tracks you know what i mean
00:52:01
Speaker
Sure. Yeah, I hear you. We move on to Shell of Light.
Fan Favorite 'Shell of Light'
00:52:04
Speaker
This one is kind of like a fan favorite. If you're a burial head or something, then Shell of Light is like the deep cut that the fans love. From here on out on the album, the euphoria kind of
00:52:20
Speaker
kicks up into this I guess kicks down into this downward spiral it's a slide deep into the UK club scene you know he continues to take R&B vocal samples obscure vocal samples and he you know puts it underneath this galloping collection of snares and kicks and bass hits this time on shell of light
00:52:43
Speaker
It's D'Angelo and he's singing closer. That's really the only word on the song is closer over and over and over again on repeat as the song builds around. It doesn't really sound like that. No, it doesn't. What does it sound like to you? Because a lot of this album... I just hear like, it's so...
00:53:02
Speaker
So yeah, the ambiguity of this album is kind of what makes it the ambiguity in the vocal samples. There are a lot of times when you cannot understand what's happening or what anyone is saying, singing or whatever. There's a lot of ambiguity across this album and I think that's...
00:53:17
Speaker
on purpose. But yeah, you know, it's interesting to hear. Everyone kind of hears a different thing, I guess, on some of these songs. And so it's just interesting to hear what other people hear. You know, there's this there's the classic burial crackling sounds, but the crackling sounds here are used as a snare. He's using the crackles as a snare and it adds this crunchy texture to the entire track, which also puts a lot of air into it.
00:53:44
Speaker
that makes the song feel lighter. Shell of light, it makes sense that it's a song that feels lighter. A shell of light surrounds us while we sit still in the dark and it's there and it's comforting, but we know what's really out there beyond the shell of light.
00:54:01
Speaker
This is a beautiful track, especially like the last minute or so. The amount of stories that people say where they're crying to the last minute of this song. It's a classic burial story. It's been known to make me tear up a little even. If you are into burial, into this music, into this album,
00:54:20
Speaker
This is usually the moment when that kind of full immersion is reached. You didn't even know how much this album was affecting you until that last minute hits, until that angelic euphoric last moments hit, which brings back a sample from earlier in the album. Great, great track for me.
00:54:41
Speaker
yeah i mean i think i think it's really pretty in the last the last minute is like pretty and emotional it just doesn't like sound that emotionally haunting for me i guess like i can't imagine being so sad to it because it doesn't it doesn't really reach those uh levels for me like to me it just sounds like really pretty or really good or you know and it can sound haunting and industrial
00:55:11
Speaker
and lonely but it's more of like matter of fact like oh this has like a lonely sound but it doesn't make me I don't like you know what I mean but it's like when you listen to a sad song I'm like oh the song is supposed to be sad but it doesn't make me sad so it's kind of like that yeah well then let's let's let's keep it moving let's talk about a song that might be a little bit more difficult for me actually is dog shelter
00:55:37
Speaker
Why difficult for you? Well, this is one of the more mysterious tracks on the album.
Mystery in 'Dog Shelter'
00:55:44
Speaker
I mean, it sounds pretty mysterious, but also I couldn't find more than two confirmed samples for this song. But if you listen to it, it is filled with all sorts of these little vocal hits, like little like millisecond samples. And they're playing almost imperceptibly in the background of the song.
00:56:04
Speaker
There are a few words here and there that can be made out, but it almost feels like another break, another respite, another plateau from the pummeling drums that we've been experiencing. It's an angelic song, you know, it furthers the theming of the album and it deepens that atmosphere that Burial has crafted so far as we get into the last tracks on this album.
00:56:28
Speaker
This song is kind of a last minute look at the sun before we fall off the mountain and underneath the clouds again. Or maybe we never saw the sun. Maybe we just imagined it and it all feels like a distant memory now anyway, and we're falling back into the urban decay of South London. It is beautiful. It is definitely like you're kind of jumping from cloud to cloud and heaven.
00:56:54
Speaker
Yeah, like you're seeing a light. Yeah, it's very angelic. You're right. Yeah, it's really beautiful. I said I haven't been to many a dog shelter, but I don't remember this being the vibe. This is a vibes song. Very ethereal. I love the way the vocal sample cuts in. This is a beautiful track. But yeah, we got that like crackling going in there. We got a like,
00:57:20
Speaker
Yeah, this one is, I don't know, it's not one that I hear on the album, and that's usually it, right? When I listen to the album. But it, just like every other song, and I think you can agree with this, every song belongs here on the album. Like, this isn't a bloated album in any way.
00:57:38
Speaker
I think that this is one of the more emotionally touching songs for me. I get so much more emotion from that song. Maybe it's like when you're at a dog shelter and you can't take all the dogs home and then you realize your life is you're in a dog shelter and there's no one who wants to take you home with them. That's so sad. Thank you.
00:58:07
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's the album. And and you're homeless. Yeah. OK. Well, yeah, we're just going to we're we're we're barreling through this last part of the album through burial. Although, you know, there's some heavy hitters in this last half
Chaotic Soundscape of 'Homeless'
00:58:21
Speaker
of the album, I got to say, including this song homeless, which is actually the least listened to song on this album, which is incredibly surprising to me because this is a top two song on the album for me. Oh, OK.
00:58:34
Speaker
I love this song. This is when the album collapses in on itself. It's taking the patterns and robotics of earlier tracks and it's taking it to extremes on parts of this song. It's futuristic and it's aggressive and there's this
00:58:51
Speaker
you know the pitter patter throughout the song pots and pans clanging the sound of an indoor shooting range nuts and bolts in a tin can being shaken a kazoo there is just a wall of sound in this song you know we even get some glimpses of
00:59:06
Speaker
the origins of dub music with some deep menacing vocals and this gritty wobbly low synth and it's contrasted by you know what sounds like alien blaster sound effects you know so much stuff just keeps getting layered onto this song until it becomes nearly completely abstract it's frantic and it's scary
00:59:28
Speaker
It's dreadful and I love it so much. It's an absolutely insane amount of samples on this track. 99% of them are probably impossible to find because they're just so tiny and so easy to miss. But they're probably from Metal Gear Solid or some obscure YouTube cover. And it's awesome. I love this song so much. I don't know why it's the least listened to song.
00:59:53
Speaker
Yeah, it definitely, you know, it is kind of like controlled chaos, though, because as you're listening to it, it doesn't feel like it sounds frantic, but it doesn't feel like overwhelming. And I think that, you know, this album really shows like a mastery over like minimalism, but also maximalism at the same time, if that makes sense. Yeah, absolutely.
01:00:21
Speaker
But yeah, this track kind of reminded me of Radiohead. I think just, you know. Yeah. Yeah, I can hear that. Absolutely.
01:00:30
Speaker
Uh, this, I said, this is a bit of a wake up after the last track. So it's like a little bit more upbeat and faster pace. And there's a lot of little vocal samples sprinkled in, you know, I don't want to even like try to try to describe what I'm trying to say. Cause I don't want to sound dumb, but like the, you know, the, the beat and the like drum, the, it like reminded me of like radio head, the pitter patters.
01:00:56
Speaker
Yeah. And I like it. I like it. Yeah. Yeah. And I appreciate it even more after your description, too. Oh, good. I'm so glad. I'm so glad. Yes. Just so many sounds going on in it. It all adds up to something very cool.
Glitchy Style of 'UK'
01:01:11
Speaker
I want to say to the listeners that I really want you guys to go listen to this album. It's impossible to describe what this album sounds like. Maybe you'll be bored by it like that was.
01:01:24
Speaker
I wasn't bored. I want to clear that up. But yeah, this is a must. If you don't supplement this podcast by listening to the music that we are listening to, this is one one album slash episode where you really need to kind of listen to the album, please. Thank you. Thank you. Love you. But yeah, I guess I guess we can keep going, right? Yeah, you can take us to the UK.
01:01:51
Speaker
The penultimate track is also the second shortest track next to the intro. The intro is the shortest and then it's UK. This one, the glitchiness that we kind of got a little bit on the production throughout this album shows its head a lot more on this song.
01:02:07
Speaker
It rears its beautiful head. Exactly. You know, you're getting a lot of high pitched glitched sounds combined with these, you know, this glitched out keyboard, the classic angelic vocal samples. And, you know, this this sounds like a really futuristic burial track. It feels like the future, almost like you're stepping on to another rainy, empty street. But this one is lit by neon signs and gentrified apartment windows.
01:02:36
Speaker
you see a UFO in the distance. It's a very cool sounding track. It's a short one again, but it's a perfect way to tee up the closer for this beast of an album. I think that this song is the most my style. It really makes me... I want to go... Okay, so if you see this street, I think is how you described it,
01:03:00
Speaker
I want to walk down the street. Like, let's walk down. Let's keep going. Like, I want to hear more of this, like, you know, glitchy kind of angelic type beat. Yeah. Yeah. I really like it. I want more. OK. So you might you might like some later burial stuff. He gets a lot more glitchy, futuristic and some of his later stuff. He leans a lot more into the otherworldly, the alien of his sound later down the line and some really cool stuff.
01:03:30
Speaker
OK, I'll look into that. Yeah, but you know, this album is kind of supposed to blur the lines between otherworldly and very human, I guess. I think, yeah, I think maybe it's because humans themselves contain other worlds within them. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Just a thought. Should we talk about this last track? Yeah.
Vibrant Energy of 'Raver'
01:03:56
Speaker
Raver. Yeah, Raver. Why don't you open us up?
01:03:59
Speaker
Um, this is the last song on this beast of an album. You've got a lot of stuff happening. I don't know. Okay, so when I listen to this, this track, I'm like, this song played on the album, right? Like, I feel like I heard this one already. Or maybe it's just because I've already listened to this album.
01:04:22
Speaker
like I get lost so much in this album where like I can't remember it's like it's such a it's such a good album in that in that respect it's like uh when you're in a casino and you there's no clocks and there's no uh sunlight so you're like I don't
01:04:41
Speaker
I know windows. I don't know how long I've been in this. That's what this album is like. And that it's very good. And that's how you know you would kind of feel like in a club and whatnot. But you know, this is the last track. And yeah, I'm like, I swear, I like we heard this. And that's probably because there's a lot of like samples and that that have been used throughout the album. But it's also like, wait, did I hear that sample earlier in the album?
01:05:06
Speaker
or or does it just fit so well in the song and just sound so uh familiar and like cohesive with the rest of the stuff so but it's i really like this i really like this song i think it's good but also at the same time i'm like isn't this the same song as one of the other songs like i don't know it's kind of a trip
01:05:29
Speaker
I love the way that you described that. I mean, this album really is like a Vegas casino floor in the middle of the night filled with cigarette smoke. Or the day, you don't know. True. But it's empty, right? There's like three people, three old people sitting on the slot machines. And all you can hear is the ting ting ting ting ting of the slot machines going off. And it's quiet other than that. And all you can smell is cigarettes.
01:05:58
Speaker
Yeah, and old people. And old people. And slot machines. And slot machine. I like this one. It's got like a little goat bleat sample in it. It's not a literal goat bleat sample, but that's what I call it. I don't even know what you're talking about. It's like, it's like. I'll have to go back and listen for that, I guess. I can tell you where it's at in the song.
01:06:26
Speaker
Well, let me say some things about Raver. We made it through the journey and we came out triumphant. If not skeptical of the success with this banger of a track, which makes sense considering its name, right? Raver. Could also be an ironic name because burial, you know, rave culture was kind of the antithesis to dubstep clubs, you know? Do you recognize the vocal sample here?
01:06:55
Speaker
No. You don't recognize it as resentment again? Which part? It's a different part of the song. I know, but which part of the burial song? You lied. Easy. Those parts? Yeah. But it doesn't sound like Beyonce.
01:07:12
Speaker
I thought it said like dream like. Yeah, it's again the ambiguity in these vocal samples. But oh, no, it's a trick. It's actually not the same resentment by Beyonce because of course it's burial. So it's an obscure YouTube cover of resentment by Beyonce.
01:07:31
Speaker
Yeah. He used the actual recording, but now he's using a YouTube cover. Yeah. OK, well, that's why I didn't recognize it. So yeah, no, I was I was trying to get you. I'm trying to find the goat bleat. Well, OK, listen to my thoughts. Listen to my thoughts.
01:07:47
Speaker
OK, then continue. Go on. OK, so that brings it all back around, right? With resentment, it brings it all back around with the vocals. But of course, he couldn't simply use the same sample. You know, there across the song, there's like these air drum things that are like doop, doop, doop, doop, doop, doop. Like it sounds like one of those tube drums that you hit with a paddle. Uh huh. It's a very rudimentary instrument anyway. Isn't that like the breakdown? There's like a little breakdown.
01:08:15
Speaker
Yeah, but it also goes throughout. Oh, I only really notice it in the breakdown. Again, in classic dubstep fashion, there's this low end bass that underlines the entire track with even more glitched vocals, adding even more texture. Suddenly, in this song, it feels like the sounds are flying past
Concluding Thoughts on 'Untrue'
01:08:38
Speaker
you. You're dancing and you're smiling and you're having fun.
01:08:42
Speaker
but you can't ignore what's really haunting you forever. This is just an escape and hiding doesn't always work, but you keep on raving, keep on partying, keep on spending your money. Maybe you wake up and smell the capitalism, bro. But anyway, this song is really amazing and I love it so much. It's another one of my favorites and I think it's a perfect way to close out the album. I didn't get any of that from the song, but I do love the sentiment and I love the song.
01:09:10
Speaker
You don't get the part where it really sounds like you're on the dance floor dancing and there's just all these sounds. I don't get the anti-capitalist sentiment part of it. I don't really know if that comes up on this track. That's just what I got from it once I started. Yeah, I'm just saying I don't get that from it, but I love it.
01:09:38
Speaker
It's a great closer, right? I think it's a perfect way to close out the album. Yeah, I really like it. It really resonates. It's fantastic. My favorite part is the goat bleat. That's the best part of the whole album. There's so many cool sounds across this whole thing.
01:09:53
Speaker
yeah i love the inclusion of like uh unknown covers my favorite thing and or one of my favorite things one of my most favoritest things in music is the use of samples and the use of obscure samples and meaningful samples and it's like a little
01:10:14
Speaker
Easter egg treasure hunt. And that's one of the reasons why I love electronic music so much is because it tends to be more sample heavy. So I really, really appreciate that. Allegedly, burial recorded some of the sounds by placing microphones into London's sewers and abandoned buildings to really get that urban grit into his songs. Why is that only alleged?
01:10:40
Speaker
because we don't really know about anything that burial does okay so somebody could have just like made that up maybe that's why i said allegedly i don't know i know but okay i'll take that with a grain of salt then thank you that's what allegedly means okay thank you
01:10:56
Speaker
Here's what Burials had to say about the ambiguity of this album, or what this album is to him. He says, it's quite urban, but it's not a street album. It's more about the spaces in between, the bits you don't see when you're walking down the street. I love that. I think that's a great way to describe it, like the liminal space, back rooms-esque. I wonder how he feels about the movie Ratatouille. He probably loves it.
01:11:25
Speaker
Well, we don't know. Why wouldn't, why, why are you asking that? I just, I just want to know if he likes it. I just want to know his thoughts. Can I tell you my final thoughts? Oh yeah, yeah, go ahead. So for this album, burial took us in and he told us that it's okay to be sad and alone and romanticize your melancholic solitude. It's cool to look sulky and have bags under your eyes and chain-smoke cigarettes.
01:11:53
Speaker
But it's also cool to love and love hard and never stop loving as hard as you can. This is an album that's made for passionate people. It's an album that defined a generation and it's an album that captured a moment in the UK and captured a culture that felt left out. It's an album that both perfectly represents what dubstep is supposed to be and one that was part of the deathbed
01:12:18
Speaker
of albums before bro step took over the genre you know this nerdy guy from south london made an album about his life in sights and sounds and textures and he provided us with a brutalist portrait of the anxiety living in post nine eleven britain
01:12:35
Speaker
It's a cultural touchstone that I think is necessary listening for everyone that likes electronic music. And even if you don't, I still think it's necessary listening. There is so much to dig into with this album and I just hope I did it justice. I hope I did enough to get across the importance of it and my love for it. This album is so incredibly important to the zeitgeist and so incredibly important to me.
01:13:03
Speaker
I love that. That's beautiful Tanner. Everybody applaud Tanner. I know you didn't get that from it. Well said. Well said. It is a great, fantastic album. Definitely a classic. And yeah, I'm glad we got to dive into it. You don't have any final thoughts on the album as a whole?
01:13:24
Speaker
I mean, I said my thoughts throughout, like it's really great, cohesive, industrial, really important. Definitely listen to it. If you like music, listen to the album. If anything, it's one of the most, like you said, cohesive albums. I mean, even the album cover like really plays into the theming of the album. Yeah. Well, I'm glad that you
01:13:48
Speaker
joined me for this. I'm glad you listened to it. I'm glad that you gave it a shot, even if I didn't like the outcome. That's what this podcast is all about. What do you mean if you didn't like the outcome? I don't know. I thought you would. I thought you would get more from it, I guess. Yeah. I mean, I just didn't get all the emotion, but I love the album.
01:14:12
Speaker
Well, good. Good. I'm glad you do. Okay. I'm sorry. No, I'm glad that you enjoy the album. That makes me feel good. Maybe one day in the future, you'll call me up and say, hey Tanner, I get it now. I listened to Untrue. Once that soundtrack hits you, I think then you'll get it. What? I get it right now. I'm just saying on a personal level. What do you mean?
01:14:41
Speaker
Like feeling it, feel the songs, feel the music. Like I do feel it though. Okay. All right. All right. You feel all the emotions and all the claustrophobia, the urban decay, the isolationism. Yeah. I just don't internalize it. I'm just like, yeah, it's there. Okay. I get it. Like I don't, I just don't feel it in the sense that I feel it. I just recognize that that's what it's portraying.
01:15:10
Speaker
Well, I guess you're not a sigma man like me. This is an album for the sigmas out there. If you're a sigma like me, then listen to this sigma album. Yeah, my dick is too big to feel too small. You anyways. Thank you. Me or the audience? You.
01:15:31
Speaker
Thank you and thank you lovely listeners, mom and dad. Mom and dad. So we're going to be taking a little bit of a winter break. So Tanner, I'm going to give you your next album, but
01:15:48
Speaker
y'all won't be able to hear the next episode until 2024 and it'll be great better than ever and yeah thank you for supporting us in 2023 and we hope that you will continue in 2024 yes thank you thank you so much we love you all i'm a little bit nervous that that you might have already experienced turd know this album so
01:16:16
Speaker
I don't know if well you already heard untrue before so yeah but I didn't like I just got a jump start on on the episode okay okay I only heard it in like August well go ahead okay well I'm just I'm gonna be embarrassed if you've heard it don't be okay I would I would really like to do okay it's a twigs album okay which twigs album LP one okay
01:16:45
Speaker
Have you heard? Oh yeah, I've heard it. The whole thing? I think so. Not in years, not, not, you know, obviously there's a couple songs from it that, that stay in the rotation, but never like I haven't experienced it before. I don't know much about it. So yeah, I'm excited for this.
01:17:04
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Well. Get excited. Why? I don't know if it counts if you've kind of heard it before and are more familiar with it. Well, okay. What's in your rotation? What do you keep in your rotation? Two weeks, obviously. Well, I guess mainly just two weeks. Yeah, I guess that's the only one that I really listen to.
01:17:26
Speaker
Then that's A-OK with me because obviously that's a single from the album and we can dive into it and explore the wonders of one of my top albums by one of my top artists. I'm excited. Aw, I'm glad. That makes me really happy. I'm excited too.
01:17:46
Speaker
Yay. And everybody else is and everybody else is excited to join us in 2024. Thank you everybody. Thank you.