Burial

William Bevan records under the name Burial, and this South London recluse ranks among the most revered, groundbreaking, and elusive figures in early-21st-century electronic music, both for the music itself and for his steadfast refusal to disclose personal details. Drawing from the faceless tradition of British club sounds such as garage, jungle, and hardcore, his productions layer chopped-up breakbeats beneath pitch-shifted, ghostly vocals and dense layers of vinyl crackle, falling rain, and submerged arcade textures, yielding desolate, rain-soaked cityscapes that suggest solitary walks through abandoned streets after dark. His 2006 self-titled debut album, among the earliest substantial dubstep long-players, earned widespread underground acclaim, yet the 2007 successor Untrue delivered a decisive artistic leap; the record not only stood among the year’s most celebrated releases but also shaped production approaches throughout the following decade as countless artists adopted its vocal treatments and cinematic, rain-drenched atmospheres. Subsequent collaborations involved Four Tet, Thom Yorke, and Massive Attack, while later EPs alternated between expansive, filmic constructions (2012’s Kindred, 2013’s Rival Dealer) and more floor-oriented cuts (2017’s “Rodent”). Although Burial maintained his policy against live appearances and still withholds a third album, he joined Kode9 to compile Fabriclive100, the final installment in the long-running Fabric mix-CD series, in 2018. Having occasionally placed ambient pieces on prior releases, he devoted entire projects to the style with the 2022 EPs Antidawn and Streetlands. A more rhythm-focused outing, “Dreamfear,” surfaced in 2023.

Burial first appeared in March 2005 on Hyperdub with the South London Borough EP, featuring “Southern Comfort” and “Broken Home.” Both tracks later surfaced among the highlights of the 2006 album Burial, issued alongside the concurrent Distant Lights EP. That debut album’s stark, atmospheric dubstep—exemplified by the entirely beatless “Night Bus,” propelled solely by sampled rainfall and haunting synth lines—garnered strong critical praise, including Album of the Year recognition from The Wire and a high placement in Mixmag’s year-end list. Anticipation for the follow-up Untrue (2007) ran high; the preceding Ghost Hardware EP, released months earlier, intensified interest. Untrue again drew widespread acclaim, appearing on XLR8R’s best-of lists and receiving even stronger reviews than its predecessor.

In February 2008 The Independent identified William Bevan, a lifelong South London resident, as the person behind Burial. Bevan acknowledged the disclosure yet continued working under the alias, subsequently issuing joint material with former schoolmate Kieran Hebden (Four Tet), Thom Yorke, Massive Attack, and Jamie Woon. Three further Hyperdub EPs—Street Halo, Kindred, and Truant—arrived in 2011 and 2012, with the first two compiled on a Japanese CD edition. After a quiet 2013, Burial returned in December with the three-track Hyperdub EP Rival Dealer. Keysound issued the one-sided 12-inch Temple Sleeper in 2015. The following year he contributed “Sweetz” to Zomby’s Ultra album, also released as a standalone single, and closed the year with the Hyperdub release Young Death/Nightmarket. Metalheadz put out his remix of Goldie’s jungle classic “Inner City Life” in April 2017, followed in May by the ambient Hyperdub EP Subtemple. September brought the garage-inflected single “Rodent,” accompanied by a Kode9 remix and the Non Plus track “Pre Dawn.” In 2018 Burial and Kode9 assembled Fabriclive100, marking the end of that Fabric mix-CD series. The 2019 single “Claustro”/“State Forest” preceded Tunes 2011-2019, a double-CD retrospective of most Hyperdub output from the decade. Another Yorke and Four Tet collaboration, “Her Revolution”/“His Rope,” appeared on XL in 2020. The Keysound split-EP Shock Power of Love with Blackdown preceded the 2021 Hyperdub single “Chemz”/“Dolphinz.” Early 2022 saw the five-track experimental ambient EP Antidawn, followed in October by the further ambient work Streetlands. Fabric released the 2023 split single Infirmary/Unknown Summer with Kode9, while XL issued the 2024 double-suite single “Dreamfear”/“Boy Sent from Above.”