Burial & Four Tet - Moth/Wolf Cub
[Text, 2009]

A vinyl 12’’, limited edition, sold out by preorder by those who knew for sure: it couldn’t be anything boring or banal. No cover art, no notes, the tracks just go as 1 and 2, so you have to guess which one is Moth and which one is Wolf Cub. Wiliam Bevan is a master of disguise, no one knew the name behind Burial for a long time. Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) kept company, and we didn’t even know whether this was a split or a collaboration. However, the guessing in favor of the latter turned out to be correct - both tracks resemble Burial and Four Tet at the same time. Moth being a bit more Burial, and Wolf Cub inclined more towards Four Tet. As if each wrote the core of one track, and then they exchanged and worked together. Whatever the process, the music is pure magic, and these 18 minutes are more whole than a lot of albums.

Wolf Cub (if my understanding of which one is which is right) is a high-voltage stakkato pumping on your nerves something with bells on a mild twostep beat. And well inside the track, appears fogginess and streamlining of forms. Makes you follow the soundscape like a turning kaleidoscope. Moth brings about a straightforward 4/4 rhythm, as if covered a bit with snow, very soft and somewhat distant and sad. From a suspenseful intro second by second appear ghostly shadows, and the music unfolds like a mystery. Phantom-like vocal samples pull you inside the music storm, a tender power of nature.

These two tracks are like two sides of the coin (or, rather, a vinyl), and whatever the number of repeats, I can’t get enough of them.

Read & Listen:

Burial/Four Tet: “Wolf Cub”

Burial/Four Tet: “Moth”

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 @ %1:%May %p music reviews
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