“Subtemple”/“Beachfires”

On his latest release, it feels like Burial is venturing far into the wilderness. Stylistically speaking, the UK producer has never wandered further from his comfort zone: Where last November’s Young Death/Nightmarket flirted with ambient music, his new songs forsake beats entirely. The new record feels like a metaphorical exploration of unknown territory, too: “Subtemple” and, particularly, “Beachfires” might as well be musical descriptions of white-out conditions—far northern reaches lashed by chilly winds, where compasses fail and visibility lingers near zero. Untethered from their rhythmic anchor, his customary sounds—vinyl crackle, garbled voices, sullen synth pads, and all manner of rustling noises—drift freely and ominously, their unpredictable motions only adding to the overwhelming sense of disorientation.

Both tracks, so suggestively atmospheric, could easily function as film soundtracks, and “Subtemple” could almost pass for a radio play. A strong narrative sensibility is woven right into its composition, with a number of its component sounds suggesting real-world objects. A quiet, speeding-and-slowing clicking noise might be a fishing reel or a ratchet. A low, persistent rumble could be the roar of the distant ocean; closer, we hear reverberant splashing, like something in an underground cistern. Bells jingle; birds chirp; an occasional wheezing sound could be a blast furnace or a sleeping beast. As the track’s layers accrue, a repeated chime resembles the pinging of an open car door.

“Beachfires,” made from similar stuff, is the more musical of the two tracks: The faintest hint of melody is audible in doleful synthesizer tones that circle slowly round and round. Again, Burial’s scene-setting conjures a profound sense of place: chimes in the wind, crackling flames, the lazy call-and-response of buoys off the coast. Where “Nightmarket” played with the sorts of synth arpeggios familiar from John Carpenter films, “Subtemple” and “Beachfires” evoke a profound sense of dread through texture alone. Like a scene filmed in near darkness, the music gives us just enough detail to let the imagination run wild.