New Burial “Street Halo”

Burial comes with a new release, his first solo effort since 2007. Street Halo is a three track EP, foreshadowing a full album that is to be released later this year. It’s Burial as we know him, but with some minor changes. The songs sound a bit less ambient and a little more radio friendly. Or even dancefloor friendly, something you wouldn’t have said about Burial in the past. But it’s not a bad evolution and Burial is still Burial. I praise myself lucky for that.

Perhaps the biggest change is hearable in the EP’s title track. Street Halo combines a pounding atmosphere with an enticing beat and spliced female vocals – making it a possible candidate for the dancefloor. NYC (track #2) has distorted beats that keep changing in tempo as the backbone of the track. It’s an abstract tune, melancholic and gloomy – with distant and distorted female vocals adding to the claustrophobic atmosphere. Third track Stolen Dog stays downtempo, but adds some soul to it. It also has a dusty piano line that stumbles along for most of the track and surprisingly brings some warmth to the music. It’s a brillant tune. All three tracks make us curious what the full album will bring. More Burial, that’s sure, but which Burial?

Street Halo

NYC

Stolen Dog

King Midas Sound again

It’s the Guardian talking to Kevin Martin aka The Bug, dub poet Roger Robinson and vocalist Hitomi. Together they are King Midas Sound and they have a wonderfull album out now on Hyperdub.

King Midas Sound

King Midas Sound is the new outfit of Kevin Martin (also known as The Bug and much much more) and Trinidad-born poet and singer Roger Robinson. The tune above is taken from the beautifull 2008 Hyperdub 12″ ‘Cool Out’/'One Ting’.
Their new album is due to be out end of this month. From what you can hear on their myspace page, it promises to be equally great. Mixing haunting dub with tearjerking ballads, this is 21st century lovers rock with a ghostly feel. Wordsound take power again with King Midas Sound.

Some more King Midas Sound: John Eden (uncarved.org) had a long talk with Martin and Robinson for FACT magazine, he aptly subtitled it The melancholy of  hope. You can read pre-release reviews from Boomkat and BBC, the latter calling the album already a classic. And King Midas Sound have started a blog with some artwork, some linkage and Kevin Martin’s excellent sleevenotes for the classic “Macro Dub Infection” compilation.

Kode9 podcast for XLR8R

On the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the Hyperdub label, labelhead Kode9 will be releasing a two-disc compilation. “5″ will both look back at the label’s history and show us the groundwork for its future.

Those of you who can’t wait till next week, can now listen to the podcast he posted on XLR8R. He takes a little step back in time for a set comprised of classic UK garage and 2-step from the period 1999-2002.

He already played this “Bubble ‘N’ Squeak Mix” for a special broadcast of the “On the Wire” radioshow, where he was one of the guests celebrating 25 years of On the Wire. Now you get a proper download from the XLR8R site. Enjoy!