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Untrue, by the pseudonymous artist Burial, is heavily favored to win this year’s Mercury Prize, which is given to the best British album of a 12-month timeframe. But if Untrue should win as expected, the man behind the album will have to come out on stage and perform a song from the record–effectively revealing himself to the world and dispensing with any mystery the album might have at that point. So The Sun, not content with just showing boobs on its inside pages, is going to ruin the fun for everyone and unmask the guy before next month’s ceremony! “Conspiracy theories are rife as to who is behind the tunes, with producers NORMAN COOK and APHEX TWIN in the frame,” the paper writes, although the more savvy people who read Drowned In Sound are pooh-poohing that idea, saying that the writer only came up with the first two DJ names he could think of in the name of starting controversy. Ooh, burn!
Burial has given interviews before in which he talks about his relative secrecy in an age where people are able to find out things like the shoe sizes of their favorite celebrities:
Burial’s privacy stems from a fascination with what he describes as the “dark light” of UK club culture – enjoying music more the less you know about its makers. “I love that with old jungle and garage tunes, when you didn’t know anything about them, and nothing was between you and the tunes. I liked the mystery; it was more scary and sexy, the opposite of other music.”
Very true. But I doubt this will stop people from trying to figure out just who he (or she??) is before the Mercury’s gong is bestowed to some album. So let’s all try and one-up each other with one-man conspiracy theories about just who Burial may be.
My guess? Max Martin! After all, it’s not like he’s a stranger to disguising his forays into other genres, and this would be the ultimate punk-out of music snobs.
Help me dig up the real Burial [The Sun; HT Matos]
The Sun attempt to un-mask Burial [Drowned In Sound]
Well, I’d say it’s either Moby or Paul Oakenfold because they want to be “underground” again. A paper grocery bag would make an awesome mask for the Mercury ceremony.
Robert John “Mutt” Lange?
Phil Spector!
In reality though I thought he was friends with Hot Chip? I distinctly remember the one of the uglier ones saying that he went to school with the guy who became Burial.
Everyone knows it’s Damon Albarn already.
Andrew Ridgeley?
i’ll say it again: burial is banksy.
Banksy.
@Nunya B:
There are more and less attractive members of Hot Chip? They all look like the cover models for the Big Book of British Smiles.
in the interviews i’ve read with him he absolutely denies being a pseudonym for any other dubstep artist, and claims to not be otherwise known in the dubstep scene. i guess he could still be some other well known british musician, but i’d much rather picture him as some completely unknown dude building beats in his attic or something
@walkmasterflex: and if he wins i bet Kode9 accepts the award on behalf of him
@walkmasterflex: they revealed who he was a
while back. William Bevan. It really wasn’t a rouse, it was true. The
unfortunate links to sites bearing his name, made it seem incorrect,
but it really is this dude.
[www.independent.co.uk]
@spazandmojo: rouse?? sorry, crossing words as was typing two things at the same time, email and this post… it wasn’t a lie. :)
frank farian!
girl, you know it’s true.
his anonymity reminds me of Daft Punk pre-”Discovery”. and i don’t remember everyone rushing to unmask Daft as the Chemical Brothers’ pseudonym or whatever. is it *that* unbelievable that it’s just “some guy”?
but really, it’s probably Jason Forrest and Jan St. Werner collaborating.
My guess? Luke Vibert.
I’m Burial. I admit, I suck.
I’ve already revealed that my cat is burial.
actually, how funny would it be if it was Moby? Everyone slags him off now (quite rightly maybe?) but it would be a shocker if the critically acclaimed, totally street-cred, Mercury Prize winning Burial, is actually world-hated Moby!
Oh and it’s not Banksy…I mean being a mystery artist AND mystery dubstep musician? It’s too much.
@moomintroll: I’m hoping that it’s Moby but based on his/her interviews, Burial comes across as a unpretentious guy who just wants to make music mysterious again without the celebrity bullshit – unlike a certain fella who has no hair.
I thought he’d already been outed?
See: [www.independent.co.uk]
And: [repertoire.bmi.com]
All credited to “William Bevan.”
Secretly I hope that Mike Rowe is Burial and being an underground dubstep producer is one of his dirty jobs. They just haven’t gotten enough material to make an episode yet.
@sparkletone: But is ‘william bevan’ just a play on…
[williambevan.co.uk]
??
@Maura Johnston: Ooh, that was clever of him. Before I didn’t care (don’t think the music’s all that great, sorry) but now I’d love to buy this guy a beer.
@Maura Johnston: if that’s the case burial continues to win in my book
@Maura Johnston: I’ve seen that link before. I don’t get it though, so I’ve assumed it’s a reference to some TV show or something that I’m not at all familiar with?
I mean, there are other William Bevans who probably aren’t Burial too, y’know?
Honestly, I hope The Independent was/is wrong and he’s credited his songs to a pseudonym/alias.
I really am curious to see what ends up happening (or not) at the Mercury Prize ceremony/performance/whatever. Also, he needs to do that DJ Kicks that was announced, but appears to have been canceled or delayed. If it took him two weeks to do Untrue (as he claims), surely a DJ Kicks comp. couldn’t take that long?
@sparkletone: oh, i just think the whole burial -> funeral home link is interesting.
@sparkletone: He also sampled the noises of Vin Diesel’s keys from a movie, along with gunshots from a Metal Gear game for that album. Our boy has a sharp ear.
He’s just some middle class white boy who doesn’t want his normalness to get in the way of a good story or some incredibly good music.
@Cam/ron: Yep.
Even crazier:
“>This is the SUPER CHEESY song that the vocal bits in Archangel came from. (eg: at 27 seconds is “never be alone”)
I have NO FUCKING CLUE how you get from that song to Archangel.
Awesome. I broke the link.
I meant this:
It’s Suggs from Madness.
It can’t be Moby for two reasons:
1. Moby’s just plain not this talented. While this is sort of debatable…
2. If Moby were Burial, we’d have heard the whole album behind advertisements already.
My shot in the dark guess is Michael Paradinas, aka µ-Ziq. He’s always been good for making surprisingly listenable and danceable IDM, but… yeah, nevermind, probably some unknown.
Wow! Whoever discovered that “never be alone” sample has good ears. It’s buried in the mix and only appears once.
Ummm…hello, it’s obviously Tommy Lee and this is his second “Methods of Mayhem” album. GOD! You people are thick.
hahaha
@DanielEdward: Last night, I googled some of the Burial tracks that have movie dialogue and found that he sampled 21 Grams, Ghost Dog and gasp, The Mothman Prophesies.
@wakeupbomb: i wondered what the “GET! GET NAKED!” sample in the middle of “In McDonald’s” was all about. thanks for clearing it up!
Allegedly revealed:
[blog.myspace.com]
If only this was the same person.
[www.bebo.com]
@sparkletone: that’s incredible, cheers for the link
yeah his myspace today gave it up
I am impressed with the design and layout of your blog. Did you hire a web designer to build this design and layout for you? It’s very nice.