Burial is an artist whose sound is rooted in 1990s UK dance music: it is intimate, full of longing and regret yet also equally as celebratory and hopeful, often all on the same track. His latest release, 2012’s Truant / Rough Sleeper continues to explore these same musical and emotional themes. Originally released as a 12” vinyl (with a digital release coinciding), it consists of 25 minutes of new music spread across two long tracks that serve as orchestral-suites. These musical themes evolve and crescendo with seamless fluidity, with mixtape-like epilogues – hazy snippets of which seem to be larger compositions united by abrupt silences. Propelled by slippery “clickity-clack” rhythms and basslines deeper than the canyons of Mars, both tracks are cloaked in deep atmospherics which manifest in the form of compression artifacts, static and fire crackle, wind chimes, clinking keys, cocking guns and tumbling shells. The A-side, “Truant,” begins with a claustrophobic and sexy groove (with one of Burial’s best vocal chops: “I fell in love with you / ‘cause you are the one”), only to build to a rousingly triumphant cacophony in its seventh minute. The track ends with several brief beats that sound as if they are half-remembered clips of songs heard in a dream: the effect is haunting after the cohesion present in the earlier part of the track. The B-side, “Rough Sleeper,” harkens to the gospel-garage of producers Todd Edwards and Wookie, complete with the most tasteful and kick ass saxophone sample I have ever heard. It’s eventual chorus of “there is a light surrounding you / be strong” is seemingly directed at the title-subject of the track: it is empowering, it is reassuring, it is Burial at his finest. I highly recommend this release for fans of UK garage, dubstep, ambient and shoegaze. (Hyperdub, hyperdub.net) Alexandre Ilkkala-Boyer