Untrue on the 42
What is it about the night time that leaves us so exposed to music?
I sometimes think that nothing else on earth can be as affecting as listening to a good record alone, at night, on a bus or driving in your car. Yet I’m never sure if it’s the records I listen to that provoke these “night feelings” or if it’s night itself which changes how they sound. I wish I could answer these kind of questions more succinctly.
Of course, the record that has got me thinking about all of this, and everyone else too it seems, is Burial’s “Untrue”. Last week I listened to it for the second time on a bus into Dublin’s city centre, with practically nobody else on board. The view from a bus at night is one of the weirdest ways of looking at familiar places, as you trundle along in a cocoon of light, barely able to see anything but the reflections of the inside unless you really press right up against the glass. I think I enjoy listening to music in a moving vehicle more than in any other place (barring a good nightclub, possibly.)
But it’s this particular zone, when it’s night time and quiet and cold, that I find myself feeling pretty polemical about the music I like. Last week I had a moment like this, somewhere in the middle of Untrue. I thought: “isn’t this the greatest music in the world?”, and simultaneously felt like the bus journey actually was now significant, because I’d listened to the record. By “this music” I guess I mean “dub”, in which I’d include most of the house and techno discussed here.
That might seem a bit rich to some, but I think it’d be wrong to say that dubstep is the only dance genre indebted to dub. As such I can’t help but feel that the reason Untrue is getting such effusive praise in the mainstream is that it is one of the first records I can think of to bring the jaw-dropping solemnity and melancholy of electronic dub, the backbone of so much brilliant electronic music, to people in a really direct and accessible way.
Anyone who has listened to a lot of dance music might wonder what all the fuss about Burial is, at least in terms of how “new” this sound is. I base that purely on the fact that this album seemed so instantly familiar to me, and seemed to hit so many of the same buttons as the house and techno I listen to. Plus it’s worth mentioning how out of this world really bass heavy dub can sound. I mean, hell, if I’m at a festival and they’re playing old Jamaican stuff on a huge system I still kind of think “holy shit” at how intense some of it is.
So if you’ve listened to Basic Channel or other dubstep (I’m dubstep illiterate) or deep house or minimal or tons of other styles, you may already feel accustomed to some of the feelings Untrue provokes (the opening of “Dog Shelter” reminds me of “Heroin” by Superpitcher) That’s not to say you won’t love it though.
I’ve taken to it pretty instantly. It’s a brilliantly poppy take on some of the biggest ideas that electronic music has to offer. It makes things I thought were unique to house or techno seem universal and essential, and seems to have allowed these qualities to crossover in a way that house and techno albums have been largely failing to do.
If you’re looking for one of those records that spins your thoughts out into space and lets them breathe (am I the only one who needs a good DJ mix to help me pay attention to my book when on a busy train or bus?) then Untrue is the one for you. It makes me glad to be on public transport (now my praise has gone too far!)
PS: Call me an Irish alcoholic but if you’re going on a night out, a bottle of beer plus this record plus the bus is like some zen level of mental preparation. Just don’t shove the bottle in the corner of the seat afterwards! HIAF recommends Hoegaarden and Kronenberg 1664 Blanc.
todd wrote:
agree with the night-time driving listening experience completely, except i gotta put my beer in a plastic bottle, ugh.
Posted 28 Jan 2008 at 10:38 pm ¶
Nate wrote:
Glad you finally listened to an album all the way through
- is Melchior coming up soon, too?
Posted 28 Jan 2008 at 11:07 pm ¶
Sotek wrote:
Great post.
“I sometimes think that nothing else on earth can be as affecting as listening to a good record alone, at night, on a bus or driving in your car.”
I feel exactly the same way. I prefer listening to music on headphones, alone and in dark setting. There’s nothing better than that. To me that’s the when I actually LISTEN to music.
“Of course, the record that has got me thinking about all of this, and everyone else too it seems, is Burial’s “Untrue”.”
That Burial album is so awesome because it feels very “urban” and that’s one of the reasons why is it so popular and highly rated. “Untrue” souds fantastic at night - at home or on the go. I’m not sure I would enjoy this type of music in a club setting.
“That might seem a bit rich to some, but I think it’d be wrong to say that dubstep is the only dance genre indebted to dub.”
Honestly, to me dubstep is just a washed-out drum’n'bass… nothing less, nothing more. I don’t quite understand what’s all the hype about..
“So if you’ve listened to Basic Channel…”
Best. Label. Ever. I can listen to BC stuff over and over again, day and night and never get tired of it. Timeless stuff..
Posted 28 Jan 2008 at 11:31 pm ¶
tom/pipecock wrote:
“Timeless stuff..”
hahahahahahaha.
now see, this post is more along the lines of what i find interesting about music. you’re actually talking about that “feeling” that is house, i like it.
BTW, i feel like house and techno are directly indebted to dub music through the disco mixes in the early 80’s of people like Larry Levan, Shep Pettibone, and (especially) Eric Matthew. those guys took the dubbed out aesthetic and combined it with the driving disco beat and drum machines and synthesizers. their mixes are probably 95% of the way to house and techno music years before the genres even existed.
Posted 28 Jan 2008 at 11:48 pm ¶
Ronan wrote:
“except i gotta put my beer in a plastic bottle, ugh.”
@todd: in theory you’re not meant to drink here either on public transport. on Saturday I was on the DART (like the BART I guess if you’re American) and I was drinking a beer with headphones on. Two inspectors got on and I was like “oh sorry about this” but they just ignored it and said to put it in a bin after I was finished. Hence my advice at the end of the thread, it felt good for people to use common sense with laws like this.
@Nate: I really want Melchior and Bruno Pronsato but the only way I can have them in a format that suits me is to illegally download them (and even then it’s shitty quality) I bought Burial on Beatport for what I felt was a really fair price of 10 dollars, for nice fat 320kbps mp3s.
@Tom: isn’t it also the case that you like this post cos you like Burial? Not to rupture this brief agreement
@Sotek: thanks a lot, I’m glad you also relate to this. I actually reckon a huge percentage of people who read here will say they find the night thing resonant too, but we’ll see I guess.
Posted 29 Jan 2008 at 1:08 am ¶
Steve wrote:
Hoegaarden is a tasty beverage!
For me, a car is one of the few places I can turn the music up as loud as I choose and be completely immersed in it. I’ve had more than one albums I’d previously stalled out on come to life in the car, at night, volume pumped (a puff here or there doesn’t hurt).
Don’t they have the Melchior on CD by you? The bonus cuts (just the “Don Juan” single) are definitely a bonus. I’m eagerly awaiting my copy of “Why Can’t We Be Like Us”…
Posted 29 Jan 2008 at 3:04 am ¶
Ronan wrote:
Oh it’s out on CD? Maybe I can buy it that way.
Posted 29 Jan 2008 at 9:32 am ¶
G wrote:
facing backwards by a window on a train, preferably at night, watching trees/pylons etc go past as if they were the video to star guitar…
i never used to be especially keen on radiohead ‘let down’ until i read this jonny greenwood quote:
“‘let down’ is about what speed and movement do to someone’s mind. You know what I mean when you’re staring out of a window in a moving train for an hour? All those people, cars and houses passing by. The melody intensifies the idea of losing yourself. I find it a nice kind of boredom, where I find my peace and in my subconscious new ideas come up.”
ok so it’s kind of a funny quote, but yep, i think a lot of people will agree.
is the burial really all that special? i think it’s great; thought it was amazing at first, but don’t you think it runs out of ideas pretty quickly? :S
Posted 29 Jan 2008 at 10:06 am ¶
Ronan wrote:
I’ll have to see, still enjoying it though. Even if I do end up tiring of it quickly, the initial impact of the last week or two has been great.
Posted 29 Jan 2008 at 10:10 am ¶
G wrote:
that’s a good way to look at it. maybe it just doesn’t have enough of a niche in my listening-life at the moment…
ricardo still wins 2007 for me.
Posted 29 Jan 2008 at 10:35 am ¶
Daragh wrote:
I had a huge emotional response to this album - I first listened to it on my own at home at nighttime. I was put off by the hype a significant amount, but when I finally relented and got a copy I was glad I did. Great stuff. I thought that while you could very obviously see the musical roots, classifying it into a genre is impossible (if that’s your game) - it’s the pure sound of the past and future.
Try the Boxcutter album (Glyphic) if you’re interested in listening to any more dubstep/related music.
Posted 29 Jan 2008 at 11:03 am ¶
Paul M wrote:
Untrue and Why Can’t We Be Like Us have both really impressed me over the last month or so. It’s really nice to have an album (as opposed to just a selection of various different tracks) to listen to that you can just get immersed in for those long wet journeys to and from college.
I’ve heard lots of talk that about Boxcutter album recently so that could well be my next step into the world of dubstep.
Posted 29 Jan 2008 at 12:38 pm ¶
CW wrote:
A few things; there’s less distractions at night, much more to catch the eye and ear during the day,
Plus, I think there’s probably something primal that makes us more insular at night-time, withdrawing slightly and keeping the head down. This probably draws us into the music a bit more. A sunny day will see a bit more skip in your step or you might roll down the car window and turn up the volume. It just means you have more to take in, on a multi-sensory level.
And, maybe, there’s something banal about every day goings on that fail to move you in the same way as a nightscape. The excitement of anything a person does can be, in my view, multiplied by doing the same thing at night time. Especially in a city, with the different lights and reflections, things like the music you’re listening seem to take on a completely different resonance.
Posted 29 Jan 2008 at 3:21 pm ¶
chrisdisco wrote:
cannot comment on burial as i havent listened to it (yet). but yes, as i write this late at night with rod modell playing very loud, i completely agree with the special character of sounds late at night. over the years, and especially lately, i find it is really late at night that dub techno that does it for me, which would tie in with your observations about burial. perhaps something in the dub, who knows. but i am sure that basic channel, vladislav delay, echochord et al all sound pretty special late at night.
and on the music/moving scenario, i think there is something about the combination of wearing headphones and being on a train/bus/whatever - you are doubly detatched from the world.
Posted 30 Jan 2008 at 12:44 pm ¶
Cahony wrote:
I enjoyed Untrue, but I guess I was left a little disappointed with it overall (maybe too high expectations). I’ve played it a fair bit but it never gave me that feeling of _demanding_ to be played.
Did you get your hood up while listening to the headphones on the bus at night aswell Ronan!?
I agree that listening to music at night has a special quality to the experience, but I guess I do it a lot. The most interesting listening experience I’ve had in recent months was a couple of weeks back while off work sick I spent a few hours on an almost completely deserted vast expanse of pristine sandy beach on the west coast of Ireland on my own with “From Here We Go Sublime” in my ‘phones. The sky was immaculately blue and it was a perfectly clear, sunny, cold day with no wind and beautiful mountains and scenery facing the Atlantic all around. I think that experience felt so special because the music helped me feel different in the way that it helped blur the edges between the ego and external world for a feeling of oneness and being less cognisant of your own self as a discrete entity.
At night time I think as has already been alluded to music can help you to a special experience in the opposite direction, where you feel a heightened awareness of the ego, yourself and the music alone & tightly wound together versus the separate external world.
Posted 30 Jan 2008 at 3:30 pm ¶
Ronan T wrote:
Liked the post although I don’t quite agree with your appraisal of the Burial album. Too many vocals and not enough bass.
Once you come to London you’ll have to check out some of the dubstep nights such as DMZ, FWD>> and Rinse among others. There’s still so much energy even after two years… far more than most techno nights. Crowd is always really friendly and drug free (apart of weed of course), which is a welcome change and kind of takes the pressure off if you’re not up for having a big night.
Posted 01 Feb 2008 at 7:31 pm ¶
Ronan wrote:
haha I guess I am a casual dubstep fan, shame on my dabbling with “the stuff that sounds like house music a bit”
It feels good not to be a one genre nazi for a change.
Posted 03 Feb 2008 at 2:40 pm ¶
George wrote:
The most intense feeling on a night bus was playing Monolake - Cinemascope for a whole winter. It was like being in a continuous blur and i kept wishing the bus ride would never end.
Posted 04 Feb 2008 at 9:53 am ¶
chinstroking.com wrote:
Yet another who agrees on the “moving vehicle + plus music = bliss” thing.
I even wrote an article about it early last year:
http://www.chinstroking.com/2007/05/driving-with-music.html
Posted 10 Feb 2008 at 1:31 pm ¶
rhak wrote:
Pretty interesting article in the guardian with regards to the topic AND burial: http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2198765,00.html
sorry i don’t have a clue how to make a link out of it.
Posted 17 Feb 2008 at 12:48 pm ¶