The Story
Burial is William Emmanuel Bevan, born in 1979 and raised in South London. His first record, the South London Boroughs EP, arrived on Kode9's Hyperdub label in 2005 — garage and 2-step rhythms submerged in vinyl crackle, rain, and city ambience, sounding less like club music than like its memory.
The self-titled debut album followed in May 2006 and was named album of the year by The Wire. Untrue, released in November 2007, went further: pitched and stretched vocal fragments turned into ghost melodies over off-grid beats. It was nominated for the 2008 Mercury Prize and is now routinely counted among the landmark electronic albums of its era.
For years nobody knew who he was. Bevan recorded anonymously until early 2008, when — with tabloids hunting the name — Hyperdub confirmed his identity that August. He has kept the same distance ever since: no live shows, next to no interviews, music appearing unannounced through the label.
The work since Untrue has come as a steady drip of EPs and singles rather than albums — collaborations with Four Tet and, in 2020, with Thom Yorke; the Rival Dealer EP (2013); the Tunes 2011–2019 collection; Antidawn (2022); and, in 2024, film scores for Bird and Baby Invasion.
