Massive Attack & Burial - 4 Walls

[DustyBunzzz]

feeling this a larrrge amount

[chromofo]

love it!

I'm a massive Massive Attack fan combined with a massive Burial fan with a cherry on top and orifice firecrackers!

[armtrack]

Awesome!!!

[south3rn]

fuuuuuuu

i wonder if they were not selling to americans? never saw an "add to cart" button

lame. really wanted this.

[garethom]

No worries, I'm sure there'll be some reasonable folk on discogs that wi-....... oh.....

http://www.discogs.com/sell/list?releas ... 5302&ev=rb

[south3rn]

No worries, I'm sure there'll be some reasonable folk on discogs that wi-....... oh.....

http://www.discogs.com/sell/list?releas ... 5302&ev=rb

lol i checked already.

bonkers

[joeki]

Liked the intro to the track and especially the outro: very blissful ambience with some sample tinkering.
I can appreciate me some Massive Attack, but I'm not the biggest fan. And the middle part is, apart from some of the percussion (which isn't ground breaking either), heavily influenced by MA. The vocals sound almost cliché MA. I think, all in all, this doesn't touch Burial's solo stuff from earlier this year.
It's better than the Radiohead/Four Tet from earlier this year though...Will make final judgements after I hear the flip side.

[phrex]

holy shit...

and out of stock FUCK

[vishes]

Discogs making me Though I already saw some1 selling it for 80, am I right? Which is still quite alot, but atleast its a bit more reasonable than 250...
Oh and I doubt this will get a digital release btw, Ego / Mirror didn't get a digital release either and supposedly this is even more "limited".

[joeki]

Ego/mirror did get a repress.

[vishes]

Yeah like 6 or something?

So in case you haven't been able to get a copy now, just be patient and see if it'll get a repress. I think that it won't take long before vinyl factory or even some other shops come up with some more copies. But a digital release? Highly doubt it.

[andresberral]

http://www.factmag.com/2011/10/18/hear- ... ck-single/

quite good in my opinion, it's the first time I hear someone real singing over Burial's music (apart from Spaceape)

[joeki]

Said this in the general forum thread, but fuck that forum is tiresome.... Hope not everybody will get all pissed here as well.

Let me say that, "Untrue" and "Burial", "South London Borough's, "Ghost Hardware", "Distant Lights", "Moth/Wolf Cub" and "Street Halo" are all fucking awesome EP's and Full lengths that rank among my favourites ever. I'm not a Burial hater, I'm not necessarily a Burial Collab hater too, Jamie Woon thing probably ranks among my favourite tracks ever. The Bloc Party remix is fabulous too. And the Four Tet 12 I already mentioned.
Having said that, I'm a renowned critic of the Burial/Four Tet/Thom Yorke collab, with an outspoken negative opinion of that record. I can take the heat for hating on that, it won't change my opinion. And the puritans of either artists are usually not quick to let criticism for slating that one slide, but go ahead, this ain't no appeal. Just so you know where I stand.

Now this one comes out. Highly anticipated. Probably on a lot of people's top list.
If I distance myself from all of the music above and listen to it like it is the first time you've heard either Massive Attack or Burial (which is of course the case for absolutely nobody here, I know that), I think it IS a good record. When taken for its own value, it's a good and innovating record. And it is 10 times better than the previous collab with Yorke because it actually has quality singing over it. And the vibe feels remarkably less pretentious to these ears and heart.
Having said that, I think the middle sections of both tracks are quite boring. It all sounds good, but I'm simply not feeling it. Is it because the tempo is down? Hardly, I massively enjoyed "Street Halo" and there are plenty of other Burial classics never breaking the 122 bpm mark. Then what isn't working for me? I'm guessing I'm taking all of the other releases in both Burial's and Massive Attacks discography into account. I think there's a fairly standard Massive Attack vibe running through these tunes, reflected in the vocals. Burials contribution seems limited to some percussion, scarce bass and some tinkering with ambience and samples. Perhaps I was expecting a more "radical" treatment.
And this brings me to the parts I like about the release:
The opening 4 minutes are pretty cool: No beats, loads of layers, simple yet haunting melodies but all ever so subtle: no thick and obvious vocal on top (however good it may be). The closing three or so minutes of track 1 up the game even more. This is trademark beat-less Burial.
The flip side, is for the large part, bar a few noisier passages, a variation on the middle section of the A-side (Four Walls). It's good, but again for me it's too much by the book and I'm left unsatisfied wanting more radical change.
My conclusion must be that I wished for this entire record to have been beat-less. I think for me it has to be either all out, or not at all when it comes to percussion, beats and Burial. Quite a contradiction: I'm saying they're good tunes, but quite boring yet I'm demanding less beats. But in the final section of the track I GET TOTALLY REDEEMED and proven so right, for it is by far the best section of the LP.

In hindsight: Between 7 and 8 minutes of pure ingeniousness, but about 12 minutes of material where we don't really step outside the box. This is of course, never an obligation, but my personal desires weren't met nevertheless, hence a slight sense of "meh, good but is it really THAT good?"

I don't think this is a bad release. I kind of regret not buying it now (I'll get it off discogs right...). I'm inclined to say it's overrated, but those 8 minutes I described above make it worth while for me.
8/10