Kindred is the fifth extended play by British electronic music producer Burial. It was first released on 13 February 2012 digitally by Hyperdub,[1] with a vinyl release following on 12 March 2012.[2] The EP was met with praise, with Metacritic assigning an averaged score of 88 out of 100 based on 17 reviews from mainstream critics.[3] In Japan and selected world markets, Hyperdub issued Kindred as a compilation with Burial's previous EP Street Halo on 11 February 2012. The release, Street Halo / Kindred, placed on the Ultratop 50 albums chart.
Kindred received widespread critical acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 from music critics, based on 17 critics, the album received a score of 88 out of 100, which indicates "universal acclaim".[3] Andrew Ryce of Pitchfork noted that Kindred "pretty much breaks every Burial precedent there is", calling it "a convenient slap in the face, a wake up call. Never before has his music possessed this much majesty, this much command, this much power: The pathos here has moved from sympathetic to completely domineering."[10]NME's Ben Hewitt wrote that "all the highfaluting talk is justified: the EP’s title track is a 12-minute depth-charge that crackles and fizzes dangerously, imbued with the same knife-edge tension you feel when trekking across London at night."[15] Reviewing the CD reissue compiling the EP with 2011's Street Halo, Robert Christgau wrote that Kindred's title track "takes seven seconds to achieve liminal audibility before slowly building into a peppier elegy than anything [Burial]'s previously dared", while "Ashtray Wasp" develops from a "distressed house anthem" into "something more lyrical. Thoughtful, even."[9]
