Antidawn

Antidawn is a collection of beatless ambient music, cementing the direction that Burial had taken since his late 2010s work,[2] and was his most ambient work yet.[3] The tracks have unconventional structures and focus on distorted vocal samples and crackles, combining into a "loose, amorphous soundscape".[4] Tom Kingsley of Clash Music wrote that Burial's only previous track "that comes close" to Antidawn was the 2021 B-side "Dolphinz".[4] Resident Advisor reviewer Emeka Okonkwo described it as a release of "spectral, wintery ambient sound-collages" and compared it to previous Burial tracks "Rival Dealer" and "Beachfires".[3] For Loud and Quiet critic Luke Cartledge, the EP is a "familiar blend of rainy, minor-key textures and forlorn-sounding field recordings".[5] "New Love" is the only track to contain percussive elements, although they are vague and distant.[4]

Kingsley compared the music to the KLF's Chill Out (1990) due to their use of collage "as a way to convey a sense of movement, not only through space ("all the way down the East Coast") but through time" and for their use of musique concrète, "piecing together functional, everyday sounds – the strike of a lighter, coughs and muffled voices, metallic clangs – to create something totally otherworldly."[4]

Antidawn ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.9/10[6]
Metacritic	81/100[7]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Beats Per Minute	90%[8]
Clash	9/10[9]
Crack	8/10[10]
Loud and Quiet	8/10[5]
NME	[1]
Pitchfork	7.3/10[11]
PopMatters	8/10[12]

According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Antidawn received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 81 out of 100 from 7 critic scores.[7]