Burial teases new release on XL Recordings

XL Recordings has hinted that a new release from enigmatic producer Burial is on the horizon.

• READ MORE: Burial – ‘ANTIDAWN’ EP review: enigma returns with videogame-style ambient immersion

The teaser for new music came in the form of a post online, where the label shared a 14-second snippet of music – appearing to be a new track from the elusive South London artist.

Shared on XL’s Twitter/X account on Monday (January 1), the audio clip came with a decidedly low-res image, showing his trademark “cross” symbol hidden behind the logo for the record label.

As for the new music, the forthcoming release appears to centre on his earlier, more rave-focused sound, instead of his more recent ambient work. Check it out below.

pic.twitter.com/bA6LVFCRMd

— XL RECORDINGS (@XLRECORDINGS) January 1, 2024

If it is confirmed that Burial has signed to XL Recordings, any upcoming new work would mark his first solo release with the label. It would also follow a string of releases outside Kode9’s Hyperdub label, where he had been releasing music for nearly two decades.

While associated with Hyperdub, Burial released his acclaimed second studio album ‘Untrue’ in 2007 – an LP which earned him a Mercury Prize nomination. More recently, he worked with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Four Tet for the collaborative track ‘Her Revolution’, which was released via XL back in 2020.

His latest work arrived last summer, when Burial joined forces with Kode9 on a surprise track via Fabric Originals titled ‘Infirmary/Unknown Summer’. The song dropped after the label teased a new release through cryptic billboards around East London.

Back in 2022, Burial dropped an EP titled ‘ANTIDAWN’. It went on to receive a four-star review from NME, being described as leaving listeners “immersed in an open-world of ambience; across its five meandering tracks, faint vocal snippets are laid over a static near-silence”.