Night Tracks Classics - Burial & Four Tet - Moth/Wolf Cub

In celebration of my second copy arriving (I have a copy of the original press, but I bagged a copy of the repress for DJ purposes), I thought I'd take the time to talk a little about one of my all time favourite releases. You may have heard about their second collaboration, in no small part due to the involvement of Radiohead front man Thom Yorke, but their first link up was the mysterious Moth/Wolf Cub, packaged only in a plain black sleeve with no information on.

Burial and Four Tet already had some common ground outside the world of music, both attending the now (sort of) famous Elliott School in London. Probably. As with all things Burial, nobody can be really sure of anything. What else was special about this collab was that they were already two massively respected producers in their own right, with more than their fair share of mainstream coverage.

Anyway, onto the tunes. Check out the A-side, 'Moth'.

Burial & Four Tet - Moth

This was the track that took the underground music world by storm. There was (and still is) a lot of speculation about this tune with regards to the input of its creator. Was this tune just Burial? Was it just Four Tet? Some suggested that 'Moth' was Burial's take on Four Tet, and that 'Wolf Cub' was Four Tet's take on Burial, but to my knowledge, it's never been confirmed. Perhaps in hindsight, now that Burial has shown his versatility with tempo with his 'Street Halo' release, it is obvious that there are elements of both producers in 'Moth'. Although Four Tet is impossible to pin down to a certain style, the synth that runs through this track has got to be his. Check out his tune 'Plastic People' from his album 'There Is Love In You' to see how he can make the same loop repeating over and over both interesting and hypnotising.

Now check out the B-side, 'Wolf Cub'...

Burial & Four Tet - Wolf Cub

For me, this is a lot easier to distinguish who put what in this one together (barring the situation above, where this is Burial's take on Four Tet). That mish-mash of looping, frantic woodblocks rolls as the main attraction over almost archetypal Burial drums, until around the five minute mark when the pads that have been threatening to emerge finally do. It's a shame almost that 'Wolf Cub' came attached to 'Moth', because I think it's massively overlooked, which I suppose is testament to 'Moth's greatness. Anyway, a much underrated track.

So there you have it, a release that I like so much, I had to buy two copies because I was so scared of messing one of them up. If that doesn't convince you to at least try and get your hands on one of the represses (Four Tet has said there will be more) then I don't know what will.