Burial, for a long time, was one of the most hyped underground electronic music producers in the U.K.
Inspired by early Dubstep and the 2-Step before it, Burial’s early music is a haze of vinyl crackle, industrial moans, heavily syncopated drums, and the odd bit of heavy sub bass!
His sound has changed a bit over the years; even between the first album (Burial ) in 2006 and the second (Untrue) in 2007, the sound becomes more R’n’B influenced, and less gritty. That said, it still had the unpolished feel that comes from making tracks on Soundforge, a rudimentary sound editing program.
“Unite” is reputed to be the first track Burial produced on a proper music program. It certainly does feel a bit slicker, which would ruin some Burial tracks but on here really helps to emphasise the liquid-like drums, and the syncopated bass. The classic Burial vocal samples
The song is essentially a dubstep song, with a weighty bassline unpinning it. The characteristic sense of space of dubstep is there, and it fits in well on the Box Of Dub compilation on which it was released in 2007
. The Box Of Dub series is a set of two releases by Soul Jazz Records, featuring dubstep and dubstep-ish songs that were either previously released on Soul Jazz or appear for the first time on the compilations.
Like “Versus” and “Fostercare”, also released only on compilations, the song is a bit different from the album stuff. It’s a lot more danceable, for one thing!
Burial was originally anonymous, but after the tabloids threatened to expose him, he revealed himself to the world.
Pretty meditative vibes!