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A Magazine for Sheffield

Kindred EP


I'd be quite happy if Four Tet rubbed off on me. For the purposes of inspiration of course. I'm not keen on sharing a bed with Kieran Hebden and his abnormally large head. I'd like to spend an evening taking his plug-ins. You know, bear a mutual brainchild. What I mean is he uses a lot of defunct analogue instruments and I'd like to go round to his and work really hard before backing up onto a floppy.

In 2009 William Bevan or, as he's known to his mum, 'Burial' collaborated with Hebden on what I genuinely considered to be "the best tune I've ever heard". Now don't get me wrong, Burial is a right royal virtuoso as it is, but when he and Four Tet collaborated on 'Moth' something very special happened. Bevan's trademark counterpoint of dusty clicks and wooshy noises were reigned in with the dance music staple of a 4/4 time signature. They say beauty is repetition and it's the beautiful repetition of a beautifully repetitive hook that repeatedly makes me think that 'Moth' is beautiful.

Last year's Street Halo was arguably Burial's best yet due to its prevalent 4/4 theme and his new release tops it for the same reasons. The title track 'Kindred' is old school Burial fare - an enormous droning bass line, 2-step rhythm and a huge suspended vocal hook.

Second track 'Loner' is where things get interesting. A primitive Casio house beat and a huge rave inspired arpeggio sit atop Burial's trademark crackles, snaps and pops, giving the track the feel of listening to a happy hardcore mix on a gramophone.

But my money is on 'Ashtray Wasp'. The track actually starts off with a pitched down sample of the synth hook from 2007's album track 'Endorphin' before a mystery female vocal clip uttering the words "Alright, bye" slices through the ambience. Bidding farewell to his previous style of production couldn't be more apt. A swinging house beat, a floating fairground arpeggio, nods to AFX's acid house twiddlings, 90s vocal stabs, and an outro who's desperate screams of "FOUR TET!" are masked under low fidelity clicks, crumbling samples and demi-octaved field recordings.

400 words isn't enough to go into as much depth as I would like. This release is exquisite. I'm not saying collaborating with Four Tet has made Burial a better musician. I just feel it made him appreciate the beauty of repetition and if you can repeatedly make something beautiful then I will dutifully pay for the opportunity to play something beautiful... on repeat.