- Willie Burns' idiosyncratic house productions are rarely lacking in a sense of fun, but Unknown To The Unknown seems to bring out his party side. On his debut for the label, the chief attraction was "Woo Right," Burns' take on a wailing New York diva anthem. Here it's "I Wanna Love You," whose claustrophobic groove, low-bitrate vocal and relentless two-note bassline suggest something altogether cheaper and nastier. Which isn't to denigrate it one bit—it's a banger, particularly set alongside "Even If It Takes All Night," which recasts one of the track's refrains as a gorgeous after-hours zonk-out. Perhaps Burns is trying to show us what desire looks like from both ends of a long, long night. Or perhaps he's just hammering his E-mu SP12 until something good comes out.
Regardless, "Every Body Everybody" offers the best of both worlds: the boisterous ping-pong beat is aimed squarely at the rump, but the titular vocal sample is looped and filtered into a wash of sound suitable for small-hours hypnosis. It's a simple technique, but one with surprisingly euphoric effects. "Picking Up Promises," finally, is a heads-down workout, just to balance things out. In this age of technological abundance, the breadth of ideas Burns continues to wring from his simple tools is humbling.
TracklistA1 I Wanna Love You
A2 Even If It Takes All Night
B1 Everybody Everybody
B2 Picking Up Promises