- The latest Willie Burns EP comes courtesy of puckish cross-genre party-starters Unknown To The Unknown. It's a suitable hookup, given the subtle humour—absurdism, even—that has long suffused Burns' output. There's also a story behind it. The EP's title track was made—or at least started—in the presence of UTTU boss DJ Haus during a film for FACT TV. The video revealed just how simple Burns' production method is, centred solely on an Emu SP-12 sampler with five seconds of sample time. The track is an object lesson in his less-is-more approach to arrangement: Burns juggles just a handful of distinctive elements—rounded bass, piano chords and the titular shrieking vocal—to form an offbeat ode to the New York house of yore.
The rest of the EP falls somewhere between the budget Nu Groove-isms of last year's Crème 64 EP and the dreamier half of forthcoming Trilogy Tapes release Tab Of Acid. The stolid house framework and videogame-bleep bassline of "The Heaviest Elements" are perfectly friendly, but an underlying parched synth texture gives it a surprising intensity. "Fast Times At Long Island City High" is far more chilled—its melody and chord progression could almost have been lifted from a shoegaze track. "Adverbs And Adjectives" is the best of the lot. It's a serotonin-drenched Balearic breakdown from the off, and the dense torrent of interleaved chord work barely lets up for the duration.
TracklistA1 The Heaviest Elements
A2 Fast Times At Long Island City High
B1 Woo Right
B2 Adverbs And Adjectives