Hyperdub legend Burial has dropped his first release since December 2020 in the form of ANTIDAWN. Containing five tracks, it is his first since two-tracker “Chemz / Dolphins” released well over a year ago. Listen on Spotify and Bandcamp below:

The EP’s accompanying text says: “‘Antidawn’ reduces Burial’s music to just the vapours. The record explores an interzone between dislocated, patchwork songwriting and eerie, open-world, game space ambience.

“In the resulting no man’s land, lyrics take precedence over song, lonely phrases colour the haze, a stark and fragmented structure makes time slow down. ‘Antidawn’ seems to tell a story of a wintertime city, and something beckoning you to follow it into the night.”

Maintaining cult status since his debut in 2006, his music existed in bleak eeriness and ambiance, offering a special take on UK club music in a manner that has been, often derisively, classed as “IDM”. The genre grouping is controversial as even the most prominent so-called “IDM” artists have made a mockery of the term, including electronic giant Aphex Twin.

The Hyperdub label has since become synonymous with Burial, both rarely existing outside each other. Released on the Hyperdub label, ANTIDAWN is a refreshing departure from the UK dance-oriented sound we have come to expect. It evades easy listening, even rarely keeping a beat, acting more as a soundscape that could easily function as an immersive video game soundtrack. Glints of Skyrim are heard on the first track, that boasts ten minutes in length, in a soundscape that would easily befit Gregorian Chanting.

Despite the fact that ANTIDAWN is an EP, containing five tracks, it nears the length of a studio album, reaching forty three minutes. Two tracks are over ten minutes, with the shortest track being six. An overwhelmingly peaceful aural experience that stands up to the expectations that Burial has set for himself, this EP flies by as it encapsulates your surroundings and becomes your own soundtrack.

This EP follows his most recent release “Chemz / Dolphins” which itself followed the massively popular collaboration with Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, Her Revolution / His Rope. The two-tracker hit the perfect middle ground between the two artists styles, with Thom Yorke himself going in the direction of ambient electronic in the last decade or so, with The King of Limbs and his solo effort Anima. One wonders whether Burial provided Thom Yorke with the necessary inspiration to create those works.