It’s perfectly acceptable for an electronic music artist to remain anonymous. Iconic Detroit techno act Underground Resistance and Parisian house masters Daft Punk are never seen without their masks and tracks crafted by producers (some well known, some not) under the guise of an alias regularly devastate dance floors simply because they’re good, not because of who made it. When dubstep producer Burial made his debut in 2005 with his South London Boroughs EP, he opted not to show his face or talk to the press. While many were curious about his identity, few lost sleep about it since his subsequent productions were so incredibly good.
While one-named, angst-ridden, renegade folk artist Jandek has never revealed his identity over the span of 50 albums, it seems Burial’s nomination last week for a coveted Mercury Music Prize inspired Gordon Smart, a writer for UK tabloid The Sun, to embark on a self-appointed mission to discover the identity of the man he calls “the Banksy of music.”
Smart urged readers to help him “dig up the real Burial” and it was obvious that some people just messed with his head. “A reader texted me this curious puzzle: ‘Burial is not Jesus but was born of Mary. The riddle takes you to Germany where no is the Kode.’”
Burial succumbed to the pressure and revealed his identity last night on his MySpace blog. “my names will bevan, im from south london, im keeping my head down and just going to finish my next album, theres going to be a 12″ maybe in the next few weeks too with 4 tunes. hope u like it, i’ll try put a tune up later.” He added: “im a lowkey person and i just want to make some tunes, nothing else.”
Although the cat was already out of the bag, Smart, who apparently didn’t check Burial’s MySpace page, devoted another column today wondering about the producer’s identity. Perhaps justice was served when The Guardian gloated that Burial’s identity had already been revealed in an article their paper ran about the Elliot School back in February. Does The Sun not shine on Google?