The (un)masked bard: Burial’s denied profile and the memory of English underground music

The aim of the chapter is to draw an essential profile of London dubstep producer Burial, one of the most prominent figures in contemporary popular music. The first part presents a detailed account of the true media crusade that led to the revelation of the musician’s identity, who started his career in complete anonymity. The second part focuses on specific aspects of both his music and communication strategy, in order to find common aspects between the two and outline an interpretation of his artistic persona. Burial presents himself as a self-secluded keeper of the English underground electronic music, whose memory and mythological transfiguration lie at the heart of his musical discourse. Although we may not call it a postmodernist work of art, Burial’s is a “music of musics”, a musical discourse at the second degree: a meditation upon the history, presence, and future of the electronic music continuum in London.