Sweaty, steamy, red-hot funk for the future

In the warp-speed world of electronic music, 18 months is like a lifetime. Yet in that period, few British producers have exploded onto the wider club consciousness with the same tidalwave force as Burns. Blowing out of the blogosphere with a decidedly ruder take on filtered funk and electro through a spate of white-hot EPs on 21-12 Records last year, the Scottish sensation fast hit an apex of adulation that lesser artists spend a whole lifetime dreaming of.

 Calvin Harris and Deadmau5 snapped him up as their tour support DJ, everyone from Dizzee Rascal to The Gossip capitalised on his hyperactive remix skills and now US r&b star Kelis has invited him to produce for her album. Still sceptical? Or just playa’ hatin’ on the basis of just how unashamedly big time this debauchery-hungry upstart already is?

 Well, step right this way, please. For if you need any proof that the much hyped Burns is a) much more than Mylo mark 2 (thank Christ) and b) not just another Daft Punk-aping, electro cat with the same hard drive of club bangers as every other Erol Alkan wannabe then this eyebrow archingly diverse double-disc mix compilation is just that.

 Plotting a visceral future for rave techno — best exhibited by his own driving‘Teknique’ — Burns has no time for juvenile bleeps or throwaway beats. Instead, the Burns DJ sound is a far ruder, sleazier and full-figured proposition with everything from Armand Van Helden’s hip-houser ‘Ski Hard’ and the rudebass blasts of Zombie Nation’s electro thug-out ‘Worth It’ getting worked into the mix. A second more leftfield selection finds homes for tracks as disparate as the ‘70s space-travel funk of Dexter Wansel’s ‘Life On Mars’ and the contemporary campness of French electro-pop anthem Yelle’s ‘Ce Jeu’. Believe the hype and savour what might be the most genuinely exciting British DJ proposition this year.