Kindred

iTunes Review

Kindred is London-based dubstep producer Burial’s hardest and darkest-sounding EP to date. While there are only three songs here, keep in mind that they total more than a half-hour. The title track opens with keyboard ambience and looped vinyl hiss before metallic, clanging beats start driving the tune like an old car in first gear. As the song shifts into second, Burial seamlessly fuses dusty, lo-fi garage beats with the heft of his signature dubstep and some jungle that bobs and weaves with a middleweight boxer's agility. In place of a lead vocal, Burial uses manipulated fragments of female vocals, pitched down and up for a haunting effect. The faster-driving “Loner” serves as a snapshot of past raves. Its locomotive beats and brooding bass synth set the stage for the type of fluttering keyboard notes that dancers can feel sputtering in their sternums when cranked from huge speakers. The closing “Ashtray Wasp” is 11 minutes and 44 seconds of dark, foreboding house from the postapocalyptic future.