Let me get this straight.
Burial and Four Tet are working together on a record.
But there’s …
No artwork.
No promos.
An entirely … black cover?
And it’s vinyl only?
I’d believe the whole thing were an April Fool’s joke, if the folks at Bleep didn’t put out an email:
We was so excited about this one, we couldn’t wait till next week to tell you… A split release shrouded in darkness (hence the artwork; no sales notes, no audio, no promos). We have been told the artwork will be in a black cover with a black sleeve on good old fashioned black vinyl.
One disc, two sides crafted by two of the most insurrectionary, innovative producers of the last twenty years, Burial and Four Tet… Believe us, this will fly off the shelves. Now available on pre-order and ready to ship for the release date of May 4th. Do not get left out. "Essential Purchase" has never sounded so right.
Look, they even included a thumbnail image of the album art. (I’m not making this up, this is literally what was included in the email.)
Maybe it’s an image of Cleveland at Night.
These guys do know the “Smell the Glove” “Black Album” in Spinal Tap was a joke, right?
The really amazing thing is, black-on-black vinyl-only limited release with only two cuts can’t even distract from the news that Burial and Four Tet are doing an album together.
The release hits May 4 for US$8.99 as a limited-run 12” vinyl.
Is this the test pressing?
It’s Friday afternoon, so you have my official permission as Editor-in-Chief to quote random lines from that scene in comments. GO!
Official release page / preorder from Bleep
(Wait, ships 04.05? I’ve missed it already? Oh, yeah … the rest of you in the world aren’t American. Never mind.)
Update: will it go fast? Will it ever. It’s already sold out, in something like an hour.