Sonic warfare

What's happened to Burial’s new album? Since the Mercury-nominated Untrue came out in 2007, only a limited amount of new material has sporadically appeared, most of which has been amazing. My favourite is Untitled Track II, which was played on BBC 1Xtra in 2009.

Burial surfaced in 2006 and maintained a Banksy-style anonymity until he decided that this was detracting from the music and outed himself as South Londoner Will Bevan, alumni of the Elliot School in Putney, also attended by Hot Chip, Four Tet and the XX. Usually lumped in with the dubstep scene,  Burial’s esoteric beats are mesmerisingly haunting and elegiac, setting him apart in a scene which has become increasingly homogeneous.
 
He talks beautifully about his music and the 'dark' aspect of it. In an interview with The Guardian he says:

"When I'm awake all night, sometimes I see the people and the city waking up around me. I feel a little bit moody at them for stepping into my night-time. What I want is that feeling when you're in the rain, or a storm. It's a shiver at the edge of your mind, an atmosphere of hearing a sad, distant sound, but it seems closer - like it's just for you. Like hearing rain or a whale-song, a cry in the dark, the far cry."

It's difficult to put into words what 'dark' means in terms of dub-influenced electronica, but it usually features a predominance of minor or chromatic keys and resonant, sub-low bass, creating an atmosphere of dread and foreboding.

I’ve always been interested in dark music, which probably started when I first heard the Dr Who theme tune! I remember being into drum and bass about ten years ago and reading somewhere that drum and bass nights in London were banning DJs from playing dark drum and bass because it was causing people to start fighting! I remember being fascinated that music could still have such a chemical and primal effect on people, albeit in a negative way.

I’d love to explore this theme further. Kode9 (AKA Steve Goodman) runs the Hyperdub record label and is the man who discovered Burial. Without trying to make sweeping generalisations, I’m willing to bet he’s the only producer in dubstep to have a PhD in Philosophy. He lectures on sonic culture at the University of East London and he’s published a book called Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear. I want this book!

It explores ways in which sound and music have been used to control and affect people. The description on Amazon talks about “the cosmic vibrations left behind by the big bang” and “the politics of frequency”. Intriguing stuff!

Most people are aware of the guards in Gauntanamo Bay subjecting detainees to Metallica at full volume for hours on end to induce them into confessing. The BBC also reported in 2006 that a mobile sonic device was being used in Grimsby to deter teenagers from lingering around shops in target areas by emitting an ultra-high frequency blast (around 19–20 kHz) that teenagers or people under approximately 20 are susceptible to and find uncomfortable.

Sonic weapons are officially classified as Non-Lethal Weapons and are an area of research for the military. In The Men Who Stare at Goats, a 2004 book about paranormal and psychological techniques used in the military, author Jon Ronson cites a leaked US military report titled "Non-Lethal Weapons: Terms and References" in which 21 acoustic weapons are listed, in various stages of development. Infrasound is described as "Very low-frequency sound which can travel long distances and easily penetrate most buildings and vehicles... biophysical effects are projected to be: nausea, loss of bowels, disorientation, vomiting, potential internal organ damage or death may occur".

Pretty frightening stuff, but even more intriguing is a technique called the Psycho-Correction Device, which "involves influencing subjects visually or aurally with embedded subliminal messages". Ronson cites an account from a English Guantanamo Bay detainee called Jamal Al-Harith who described being played at normal volume a Fleetwood Mac CD which may or may not have contained subliminal messages.

Not having read the book, I can't vouch for it's credibility or veracity – maybe the story about Fleetwood Mac is just Rumours...