Burial

William Emmanuel Bevan, known by his recording alias Burial, is a British electronic musician from South London. Initially anonymous, Burial became the first artist signed to Kode9's electronic label Hyperdub in 2005. He won acclaim the following year for his self-titled debut album, an influential release in the UK's dubstep scene which showcased a dark, emotive take on UK rave music styles such as UK garage and 2-step; it was named the album of the year by The Wire. Burial's second album, Untrue, was released to further critical acclaim in 2007, and recognised as a landmark work of electronic music.

In 2008, Bevan's identity was revealed by The Independent and confirmed by Hyperdub. In the following years, he went on to collaborate with artists such as Four Tet, Massive Attack, Thom Yorke, Zomby, and The Bug, in addition to releasing a series of long-form EPs such as Kindred (2012), Truant / Rough Sleeper (2012), and Rival Dealer (2013); most of these releases were later compiled on the 2019 compilation Tunes 2011–2019. He has remained reclusive, giving few interviews and avoiding public appearances. AllMusic described him as "one of the most acclaimed, influential, and enigmatic electronic musicians of the early 21st century".

Biography

Early career: self-titled debut and Untrue

Bevan grew up a fan of jungle and garage, having been introduced to the UK rave scene by his older brothers. He mentioned American garage producer Todd Edwards and the UK's 2-step subgenre as favorites. In an interview with The Wire, he explained:

I was brought up on old jungle tunes and garage tunes that had lots of vocals in but me and my brothers loved intense, darker tunes too, I found something I could believe in... but sometimes I used to listen to the ones with vocals on my own and it was almost a secret thing [...] My brother might bring back these records that seemed really adult to me and I couldn’t believe I had 'em. It was like when you first saw Terminator or Alien when you're only little. I'd get a rush from it, I was hearing this other world...

Bevan began sending Steve Goodman (Kode9) letters and CD-Rs of his home-made music around 2002, having been a fan of the music featured on Goodman's Hyperdub website. In 2005, the label released the South London Boroughs EP, which collected tracks recorded by Burial for several years prior. Burial's self-titled 2006 debut album was the first full-length release on Hyperdub.

Despite early acclaim, Burial initially remained anonymous, and said in an early interview that "only five people know I make tunes". In February 2008, The Independent speculated that Burial was Bevan, an alumnus of South London's Elliott School. The school's alumni also include Kieran Hebden (Four Tet), with whom Bevan has collaborated. On 22 July 2008, it was announced Burial was a nominee for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize for his second album, Untrue. There was much Mercury Prize-related coverage in tabloid newspapers in the UK, including speculation that Burial was either Richard D. James (Aphex Twin) or Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim). On 5 August 2008, Bevan confirmed his identity, and posted a picture of himself on his Myspace page. A blog entry stated, "I'm a lowkey person and I just want to make some tunes", as well as announcing a forthcoming four-track 12″, and thanking his fans for their support up to this point.

Post-Untrue work

Rather than releasing a third album, Burial has spent the years since Untrue releasing increasingly longer and more experimental individual tracks. This began with "Moth" / "Wolf Cub", a collaboration with Four Tet, and Burial's own track "Fostercare" and EP Street Halo. He developed this practice, experimenting with multi-part suites rather than conventional songs on a Massive Attack collaboration, "Four Walls" / "Paradise Circus", and subsequent solo EPs Kindred (2012), Truant / Rough Sleeper (2012) and Rival Dealer (2013). Each of these EPs was met with critical acclaim, with Kindred being singled out in particular as a landmark release. Three further shorter records were released in the following years; "Temple Sleeper" was released on Keysound Recordings in 2015, an EP titled Young Death / Nightmarket came out in November 2016, and Subtemple / Beachfires followed in May 2017.

In 2018, Burial worked with Kode9 to compile Fabriclive 100, the final instalment of the long-running Fabriclive mix CD series. He collaborated with The Bug on two EPs, 2018's Fog / Shrine and 2019's Dive / Rain, released under the names "Flame 1" and "Flame 2", respectively. A compilation of Burial's solo EP and single releases, Tunes 2011–2019, was released on Hyperdub at the end of 2019.