Listen: Burial and Massive Attack ‘Paradise Circus’

Yesterday, the Burial and Massive Attack collaboration “Four Walls/Paradise Circus”  was released as a 12″ with limited edition packaging designed by Massive Attack’s leader 3D. Listen to “Paradise Circus” now.

Last week, Burial and Massive Attack dropped the sublime “Four Walls,” which had several movements, one of which sounded as though civilization were unraveling inside one’s ears. Yesterday, the full collaboration was released as a limited edition 12″ “Four Walls/Paradise Circus” with artwork by Massive Attack’s Robert ’3D’ Del Naja.

“Paradise Circus” is up and streaming now and although it was originally released as a Massive Attack track on 2010 LP “Heligoland,” the reworking sounds far more Burial than Massive Attack. That is, one gets the impression (or at least this critic does) that one is walking on a desolate street at 3:00am and the lights are glittering, but everything is empty and abandoned, though there’s no sense of danger or doom.

A sense of doom, however, is Massive Attack’s bread and butter, and so there is an element of it in Burial’s reworking of “Paradise Circus,” though it’s hardly as rich as on “Four Walls.”

Have a listen below. Apparently it was ripped from Mary Ann Hobb’s XFM show.

The last approximately three minutes are absolutely sublime, with the chord changes and atmospherics at about 10:18 and on being some of the most beautiful of the entire collaboration, the entire year and, indeed, of Burial’s career.