Name-checked as one to watch by Annie Mac, Mylo, Calvin Harris, and blogs alike, 23 year old BURNS is the electronic wunderkind tipped to take British dance music kicking and screaming into the next decade.
One limited release, key support tours, and bootlegs ranging from Altern 8 to Prince, have brought him a torrent of international attention. In a scramble for some of his production gold dust, BURNS has also been called up for remix duty by the likes of Empire of the Sun, Late Of The Pier, Passion Pit, Filthy Dukes, Yuksek, Melanie Fiona, Calvin Harris, and the Gossip.
BURNS’ ‘ 2 (‘Turbo’/’HeartBeats’), is the second instalment in his series of four singles (these being BURNS’ ‘1’/’2’/’3’/4’, the title being representative of the number of tracks on each release). Further tracks will be issued later this year, before a debut album in 2010.
With a penchant for hotel room antics and on tour ‘shenanigans’, BURNS is as far away from your mild-mannered typical studio-tanned boffin as it gets. Born on Halloween 1985, he’s the son of a painter mother and a professional heavyweight boxer father, an upbringing that goes someway in explaining the duality of his music.
On one hand, BURNS unleashes the kind of sonic bursts associated with European stalwarts such as Justice, but stamped with the kind of rave (un)sensibility that could only come from a British upbringing (Glasgow-born, Brighton-based), on the other, his ear for melodic beauty shows he’s the Scottish jetski buzzing in front of Falke and Lindstrom’s maturing yacht house.
This release perfectly captures both sides of the BURNS enigma. ‘Turbo’ has the kind of grimey, rave-inflected bass that has so excited blogs including Big Stereo, Trash Menagerie, Oh! Crapp, and LA Friendly, and earned him the support of DJs ranging from Erol Alkan, A-Trak and DJ Mehdi, to Dubfire and Don Diablo. ‘Heartbeats’ is his seductive love note, complete with a ‘reach for the lasers’ riff writ large across it.
LABEL: 21-12 RECORDS
RELEASED: 20 JULY
