Somewhere We Belong - Burr Oak

A raw, gritty testament to the darker side of drum n bass, Burr Oak let loose a flurry of potent bangers for a phenomenal debut album. 

Fulfilling a sizeable 18-track, 90-minute-long tracklist, "Somewhere We Belong" is a less of an expansive project, and more of a precisely coordinated barrage of neurofunk missiles with plenty of range and diversity, but the same destination: your eardrums. A potent attack of ferocious basslines, synth atmospheres, and bold production choices, Burr Oak's—the collaborative duo of underground DnB artists Opsen and The Clamps—debut project is nothing short of a masterpiece. A masterpiece of sound, first and foremost; "Somewhere We Belong" is a role model example of the absolute zenith of modern neurofunk, grimy and aggressive in all the right ways—but with plenty of innovation too, experimenting with tonality and drop structure, going for intruiging track styles and even flinging in a few genres like techno into the mix. The sound design is no small feat either, bringing in multitudes of distorted elements, which work wonders—particularly in a genre like neurofunk which likes its minimalism, sprinkling in layered sound design is a fantastic stylistic choice, and Burr Oak do well to make sure it's not too overblown. The flip side of the coin is equally good; the narrative Burr Oak poses is very engaging, following two battle-worn travellers in their search for home, a narrative quite explicitly established in the opener "Far From Home" that then moves into a dark movement—tracks like "Symbolic" and L'Effrondrement" come to mind—that develops into something vicious, something murderous, a mood driven by tracks like "Ring The Death Knell" or "Uno". It's this viciousness that works particularly well with the neurofunk style, giving Burr Oak full license to go as hard and as gritty as they can, and though it might lack the pure chaos of some of their other stuff, it's controlled and it's precise. The final movement, a (broadly speaking) more hopeful one, demonstrates their aptitude for diversity—something that's always important in any album, particularly one of 90 minutes—spanning across a fair range of DnB styles, bringing in both liquid and melodic ideas whilst still sticking true to the relentless neuro that perpetuates the project in its entirety.

As difficult as it is to keep a 90 minute tracklist engaging throughout its journey, Burr Oak pull it off by an impressive margin. Again—and I cannot emphasize this enough—the single-minded aggressiveness of the neurofunk is the biggest enjoyability factor here, with a neat little story threaded through it, but I suppose all the grimy basslines can become a little hard on the ears towards the end, and the mixing can be overly harsh at certain points. It took a while to grow on me, admittedly, but neurofunk—or DnB in general, I suppose—is not a genre any random bozo can easily put a storyline to, forget a full journey, but if anyone could do it, it's Burr Oak.