Burial's Untrue: The making of a masterpiece

Ten years since its release, we unpack the creative process behind one of electronic music's most mysterious classics.

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Where would UK dance music be without Burial's Untrue? The South Londoner's second album, released ten years ago this month on Hyperdub, has arguably done more than any other record in recent history to shape electronic music, presenting not only novel production techniques but the power of rooting a record in a specific time, mood and place. Through its dank textures and heart-wrenching vocals, Untrue portrays the darker side of London, a rainy metropolis filled with lonely citizens and long-forgotten clubs. But it's not all doom and gloom. Peeking through the shadows are glimmers of light, hope, even euphoria. To quote the man himself, it's these flashes that ultimately give Untrue its "buzzin', glowy, uplifting" edge.

This video essay, the first of its kind on Resident Advisor, tells the story of Untrue, from the software and the samples to its influence on a whole generation of producers. The mystery surrounding Burial means there's a lot we'll probably never know. But then that's part of what makes Untrue such an iconic piece of work.

Narrator: Moxie
Writer: Carlos Hawthorn
Editor: Sophie Misrahi
Graphics: Mike Winkelmann

*Correction - Vocal sample at 6:08 was Aaliyah, not Ashanti.

[anastasiaivanova]

Burial is like that 30 min walk from the party to your place at 2am on a wednesday

[MotownShaker]

Burial: writes a Grammy-Nominated masterpiece in 2 weeks using a technological fossil
Me: spent 2 years making 33 unfinished 8-bar loops on Ableton and releasing 0 tracks

[MasDouc]

Untrue is like listening to an album of half remembered songs you heard years ago floating around in your subconscious.

[Caramelmao]

Wow I'm just now seeing this, this is so cool still till this day i'm getting messages from fans telling me that burial sampled me i'm so honored to have been a part of this wish I could reach out to him been looking for years

[persona]

"He's not concerned with audio quality. It's all about the emotional value of the sound".

Glad to know I'm not alone.

[Superflowz]

I wouldn’t call this one of the greatest electronic music albums ever made.

I’d call it one of the greatest albums ever made, period.

[SecondWizards]

The fact Burial went to the same school as Four Tet, Hot Chip, The xx and others is a different breed of students who are meant to be a success of their music diversity ❤

[sunnowo]

This man could probably make an album with the voice memo app

[grantkveton]

When I was about 17 years old, it was a very dark time in my life.. I couldn't stop using hard drugs everyday after school, alone in my room, depressed and borderline suicidal. Every day I felt alone in my head and with my emotions. It was also around that time I discovered the album Untrue.. the deep emotional sound reached me in a way that no piece of music had ever before. I cried my eyes out, I felt my emotions more intensely.. but I did not feel so hopeless. Burial's music saved my life and has been a huge influence on my own music production.

[makiskav]

No other piece of music made me feel this way. Ever.

[casualintrovert]

Burial for me is the perfect sonic embodiment of what I think a dystopian future would sound like. It makes me think of just walking through the slums of a city, where one half is low slung homes, shacks, and then just out in the distance with a stark contrast is the city with it's infinitely tall skyscrapers and flying cars.

[chrisillsley]

I was a 16 year old living in south London when this album was released. Lonely, in the closet, depressed, anxious and confused. I used to listen to it on night buses home and I can’t believe I’ve never known all of this before or that quote at the end. It’s perfectly sad and hopeful, human, London in the late noughties, but exactly that - a distant sound that feels like it’s just for you. Thank you burial. Much love.

[Colatron]

Genius doesn't even come close to describing Untrue. Still a thousand years ahead of anything else.

[ForeverGambino]

Burial is walking home from a rave with a bunch of chemicals starting to leave your system as the sun slowly peaks through a cloudy, cloudy night

[willmcpherson]

While I do think Untrue is a fantastic vignette of London, what I find most compelling is how it's also a universal album. There are orchestral elements, R&B vocals, syncopated rhythms, world instruments and modern synthesisers, all blended together to create this massive cross-cultural experience. It also manages to be perfectly nostalgic yet also completely futuristic. It's evocative but alien. It's uplifting, soul-crushing, heart-warming and ethereal. It's one of the most emotionally sophisticated albums of all time.

[DSL_Returns]

Let's not forget that 'Endorphin', on the Untrue album, played at the very start of this video, also sampled another brilliant video game, Silent Hill 3, the original song being called 'Lost Carol'.

[RichHoy]

This album delivers so magnificently on every level. The music communicates beyond being dubstep, garage, ambient music etc and penetrates deeply into the listener’s heart to communicate it’s sensibilities. This is beautiful music that demonstrates the phenomenon of context and art working through a person and not for a person.

[spinky]

The sound fx/ designers of metal gear solid should be proud. They contributed to this masterpiece of a work

[willmcpherson]

The greatest album to ever come out of the dubstep/garage/UK movement. After decades of club hits and underground rave tunes, this little album absolutely blows everything else out of the water. It's a testament to the power of careful sampling and arrangement. Untrue is proof that even the most objective engineering challenges like mixing ultimately just come down to human emotion.

[getthoseskills]

What a rare genius this guy is. Britain really does produce some talent.
I also love other various UK electronica based acts like
Aphex Twin, FourTet, Unkle, Squarepusher, Autechre, Massive Attack, Forest Swords, Allflaws