Crackle and surface noise can carry the spectral essence of a record

Evidence

Burial is the kind of album I’ve dreamt of for years; literally. It is oneiric dance music, a collection of the ‘dreamed songs’ Ian Penman imagined in his epochal piece on Tricky’s Maxinquaye. Maxinquaye would be a reference point here, as would Pole – like both these artists, Burial conjures audio-spectres out of crackle, foregrounding rather than repressing sound’s accidental materialities. Tricky and Pole’s ‘cracklology’ was a further development of dub’s materialist sorcery in which ‘the seam of its recording was turned inside out for us to hear and exult in’ (Penman). But rather than the hydroponic heat of Tricky’s Bristol or the dank caverns of Pole’s Berlin, Burial’s sound evokes what the press release calls a ‘near future South London underwater. You can never tell if the crackle is the burning static off pirate radio, or the tropical downpour of the submerged city out of the window.’ — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, 211

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘cracklology’: foregrounding sound’s accidental materialities, descended from dub’s materialist sorcery.
• XREF: Connects to the earlier chapter claim about Tricky’s female singers sounding like mediums being spoken through — both are hauntological audio techniques. — connects to: Crackle in recordings makes the time dimension audibly present — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2425; Vinyl crackle in music marks audiovisual distance from a lost tactile materiality — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 332
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Broader Connections

• Crackle in recordings makes the time dimension audibly present #expands (0.85) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2425
• Vinyl crackle in music marks audiovisual distance from a lost tactile materiality #expands (0.78) — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, 332