Somewhat unsurprisingly for this reclusive musician, things have been rather quiet of late.

Label: Hyperdub
Released: April 2011
Format: Digital download, 12” vinyl
By Will Jobbins

But eventually, and with obvious reluctance ("I'm a lowkey person and I just want to make some tunes, nothing else…") Burial revealed his true identity, via his Myspace page, as the young South Londoner William Bevan*. Ultimately, however, the Mercury was won by Elbow, the media attention faded and Bevan drifted back into the shadows, emerging only occasionally over the next four years to release remixes for, or collaborations with, artists including Breakage, Commix, Jamie Woon and Bevan’s old school friend Four Tet, and also a solitary original production – the single Fostercare, released on a Hyperdub compilation in 2010.

So it was with some excitement that I learned of the imminent release of a three-track Burial EP, ‘Street Halo’. I bought and downloaded all three tracks without even previewing them, turned the lights down, rolled a smoke and put on my most powerful headphones. And, I’m glad to report, Street Halo carries on almost precisely where Untrue left off.

The title track is preceded by that trademark crackle, like a dusty old 12” played through an ageing gramophone. All at once a beat emerges, a fast, muffled 4/4, speckled with a host of loose, atmospheric clicks, rimshots and percussive effects, and within thirty seconds Burial is taking over my mind all over again. Where the fuck have you been, man? Leading up to and into a drop, of sorts, Street Halo is then propelled through waxing, waning moods by a monotonous, lugubrious bassline, with distorted vocals and subtle effects creating an exquisite exercise in near-weightless sound.

The second track, NYC, is a calmer, more traditional Burial creation of the style of Ghost Hardware, with slow, two-step shuffling percussion underscoring moody orchestral pads and muted vocal effects. It is a beautifully honed and deceptively minimal piece of music with incredible depth, even as a faint house beat gradually morphs in and out during the second half.

Closing this all-too-short EP is Stolen Dog, a slightly more positive track (in relative terms, at least) thanks to a chilled synth melody which hopes to lead the EP, one feels, away from the dark, rainy depressive depths of Street Halo and NYC and towards a neon-lit 3am coffee house, where haunting tubular bells, and that vinyl crackle, mimic the sound of the rain – or, of course, mimic the sound of the sadly missed mutt’s wee on the concrete steps outside.

There is nothing particularly new here in terms of musical progression, and things haven’t really moved on very far from Untrue. But that’s no bad thing. Street Halo lacks the ominous, subtly aggressive mood of Near Dark or Spaceape, but it is a typically Burial trip for the emotions. There are those who just don’t ‘get’ Burial, and there are those who most certainly do, and who rate him among the UK’s most talented musicians of recent years. This won’t change anyone’s mind either way, but it will be a welcome addition to the collection for the latter.