Streetlands＜数量限定盤＞

With his EPs Antidawn and Streetlands, Burial released nearly 80 minutes of ambient music in 2022. Antidawns five tracks expressed bleakness and hopelessness without the relief of ecstatic melodies or dance beats to get lost in, and while Streetlands isnt exactly a rainbow at the end of a tunnel, theres something about the way its sounds sweep and levitate that produces an uplifting feeling. The 14-minute title track is filled with eerie, backwards voices and carefully placed bits of strings, water dripping, and even throat singing or chanting at one moment, all covered in an unearthly glow. A voice shivering "theres somebody out there" surfaces twice, summoning grainy waves of sorrowful trance synths the second time, rising up and coalescing into the pieces climactic ending. "Exokind" places rippling synth arpeggios over a faint backdrop of crickets and other haunting night sounds. The section with spiraling acid melodies is one of Burials most cinematic moments, and while plenty of other gripping movements occur, the track ends abruptly with a tape deck click. Burials signature crackle and hiss is present throughout Streetlands, but overall theres a greater sense of clarity to it than Antidawn, and its some of the enigmatic producers most affecting ambient work. ~ Paul Simpson