Willie Burns - Creme 64

  • Share
  • New York's William Burnett is the proud owner of a sprawling discography spanning a number of aliases, taking in psych-disco (Grackle), pastoral soundscaping (Black Deer) and bedroom Americana (as one half of Ex Vivian). In the past two years, though, Willie Burns seems to have been his central alias, finding distinctive angles on house. At times Willie Burns productions sound highly reverent towards New York's house heritage; at others they sound like nothing else around (see the sinister title track from last year's Overlord EP for Trilogy Tapes). What unifies them, perhaps, is a playful, tongue-in-cheek quality—something that certainly applies to Burnett's second EP for Crème Organization. "No Answer" and "Run From The Sunset" both sound as if they were made using the cheapest equipment available—children's keyboards, low-memory samplers and battered drum machines. The latter tackles the aqueous atmospheres of Detroit in characteristically ramshackle fashion, while the rave-y string-chords in the former seem to be pitching for peak-time euphoria but fall near-comically short of the mark. Fortunately, it's the failure that makes it so fascinating. Elsewhere Burnett pushes repetition to provocative levels. "Pong In A Tracksuit" features just a single woozy synth line, leaping erratically over a robust house bump in a manner that pivots between maddening and endearing. Finally, the intoxicating "Touch The Light" is saturated with bright, strobing pads, like the dappling effect you get driving down a tree-lined street in strong sunlight. This EP isn't Burnett's most conventionally satisfying work, but then when have we ever looked to him for the conventional?
  • Tracklist
      A1 Pong In A Tracksuit A2 No Answer B1 Run From The Sunset B2 Touch The Light
RA