Eating hats… (Rhythm & Sound, Burial)

Cover of See Mi Yah remix CD

Eight months ago I used slsk to sample a couple of 12″s bearing the initial remixes issued by Rhythm & Sound of their latest project, the one rhythm See Mi Yah album. I loved the original, but hated the remixes and wrote an impassioned rant thereon… Forward fast to a month or so ago and I enquire of a Last.fm neighbour where his most listened to track (Rhythm & Sound – See Mi Version (Basic Reshape) can be found. He’s kind enough to tell me that it’s from the aforesaid remix album. On impulse I buy the cheapest new copy I can find (after checking Gemm, Musicstack and eBay I find the best deal from an Amazon marketplace vendor), it arrives a fortnight or so later and here I am grooving away to it. I understand my initial strong reaction, but am now fascinated by the different and generally very high quality interpretations by the likes of the impossibly cool Vainqueur, Sleeparchive, Substance et al, not forgetting the fascinating opus by Villalobos and the tiptop attentions of Carl Craig. I’m still inclined to think that the grafting of these brilliant Jamaican vocalists onto a number of different techno chassis isn’t entirely convincing, but the quality of the music is (now, to me) impressive.

My other rant of 2006 was my reaction to Burial’s eponymous debut. Perusing the end of year lists, it’s apparently and rather amazingly almost everybody’s favourite. I do still find this strange; evidently I’m continuing to miss something. Or perhaps I’m remarkably perceptive (er, yes of course I’m joking). Given that I’m a huge fan of the textural minimalism of the Chain Reaction/Rhythm & Sound sound and I’ve warmed to quite a lot of Dubstep, I evidently need to try again. So, come early 2007, will I be munching on one hat or two?

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You’re currently reading “Eating hats… (Rhythm & Sound, Burial),” an entry on A Personal Miscellany

Published:: 26.12.06 / 5pm

Category:: music

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I’ve been writing this blog for quite a lot longer than three years and now I’m finally getting round to writing something in the About page. But what to write? Oh well, if you check the category listings you’ll see what I cover. It’s a ragtag assortment of bits and bobs, anything that catches my fancy really. Unsurprisingly, much of that is music. I much appreciate comments, but whether you feel like making them or not, I hope you find something of interest.

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j 26.12.06 / 8pm

I didn’t get it either. Cheap’s not the word, and neither is uninspired, but it’s somewhere in there, I think. U hurt me and Southern comfort are nice, but as a whole I found the album just as uninteresting to me as the Kode9+Spaceape one, even after repeated listens. I keep expecting more of the songs, maybe that’s the thing. Or maybe I’ll be munching on a hat too?

PS. cheers for a nice read through your blog.

themilkman 27.12.06 / 9am

I was a tad surprised to see the Burial album toping the Wire list for this year I must admit, as I don’t think it is that progressive or innovative, but I haven’t been too much into the dubstep movement so far. I still have to hear the Kode 9 album you reviewed recently, which sounded like an interested one to get my teeth into.

Having said that, I think the Burial album works rather well overall. I like the Spartan mood, which is not without recalling some of the Chain Reaction stuff. It also reminds me of early Photek in the way the sound is so clean-cut, almost surgical.

peter 27.12.06 / 1pm

I concur; there was nothing truly mind blowing about the burial album. However, it bore its way into my head and really didn’t want to leave. It’s a great album, but its not great in that it pulls out all of the stops, but more that it doesn’t want to stop following you around.

mapsadaisical 30.12.06 / 5pm

I didn’t really think that Dubstep would ever be my cup of tea, until I spent a week out of London, and on the train journey back, pretty late in the evening, found myself listening to Burial. It was like I’d just entered the transmission range of a pirate radio station. I felt like I was back home – hence this is such a powerful and evocative record for me.

11V 31.12.06 / 3pm

New year’s resolution (one of three so far): give Burial (yet) another go…

Houndworld 10.01.07 / 10pm

I quite enjoyed Burial last year – it’s not staggeringly good or revelatory, but I’ve not really heard any dubstep that is. I suspect the problem is that we’ve put a name to something and are now expecting it to be the groudbreaking musical movement that you’d feel proud and exclusive to advocate in its nascency (like jungle). But the truth is that nothing that goes by the name dubstep is enough of a step-change (!) to fulfill that ambition. I expect it’s the same reason that’s behind the Wire’s choice of album of the year.

11V 14.01.07 / 6pm

Salient conjecture Mr Houndworld, salient and quite possibly demystifying. I thank you.

peter 17.06.07 / 3pm

I wonder…if you strip away the tag of “dubstep” from Burial’s album, does it become better any better?

I know it’s kind of an odd question. It seems what is really causing all this frustration is that, in all honesty, there is nothing remarkable or special about this album. Still, no one seems to be able to stop listening to it and loving it.

Though I still feel the jury is out on this dubstep thing (even though I own a few dubstep albums), Burial is still a fantastic producer and despite the tag of “dubstep,” this might be one of the only dubstep albums to make it past this genre’s lifespan.

11V 24.06.07 / 1pm

Interesting point Peter, but I’m struggling a bit with how, if it isn’t special or remarkable, people can’t get enough of it. I’ve been listening to his new EP, Ghost Hardware (my first digital download from Boomkat) and enjoying it – which is a step towards joining in in with everybody else I suppose, though as someone commented elsewhere, it doesn’t add anything new to the album tracks. I do think the Skull Disco compilation is well worth hearing if you haven’t yet – I’m very interested to see whether Shackleton can keep developing and transcend the genre he claims not to be a part of.

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Eating hats… (Rhythm & Sound, Burial)

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