House Playlist: Burial, Thom Yorke/Burial/Four Tet, and Raphael Saadiq

Burial, “Stolen Dog.” After U.K. dubstep artist Burial released two highly acclaimed albums in 2006 and 2007, he slunk back into the shadows and offered up only infrequent collaborations with artists like Four Tet and Thom Yorke (see below). But he’s also got a new EP, Street Halo, which mixes his typically robotic two-step rhythms and ethereal vocal samples with warmer electronic sounds. “Stolen Dog” is the best example of this artistic step forward, effectively balancing ambient and trance atmospheres. It makes you want to listen to it late at night while driving through the city in the pouring rain. Good dubstep will do that. Michael Kilpatrick

Thom Yorke/Burial/Four Tet, “Mirror.” “Show your face,” Thom Yorke sings, the first words of “Mirror,” but just whose face is clearest in this collaboration between Yorke, Burial, and Four Tet, three of contemporary music’s biggest genre benders today? In the early moments of “Mirror,” Four Tet’s influence is hard to detect, with Yorke singing over moody clicking percussion that’s highly reminiscent of the opening track from Burial’s Untrue. But a couple minutes in, Kieran Hebden’s warmer take on electronica comes through with synths that pop behind Yorke’s voice like small bursting bubbles. The cumulative effect of “Mirror” is something closer to a fun house mirror, blurring the distinctions between all three artists even as their idiosyncrasies remain obvious. Ross Scarano

Raphael Saadiq, “Good Man.” Raphael Saadiq channels a slow-burning gravitas reminiscent of “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” with the second single from his just released album Stone Rollin’. Twisting the obscure retro duo Them Two’s similarly titled groove into something new, “Good Man” taps a rich vein in R&B: betrayal. Saadiq’s honeyed croon takes on a chilly air, perforated and straining as he sings, “I feel like the knife’s in my back, you might as well pull it all the way through.” Underneath, a nostalgic symphony clamors to great effect: The guitars and vocals, which are billowing in reverb, sound distant and, like the pops of snare and tambourine, caked with dust. It’s an inverted polish, culling vintage soul-pop and Brill Building sonics with concision. M. Sean Ryan

This article was originally published on The House Next Door.