- Excellent house, techno and ambient from a promising UK collective.
- Cong Burn records dazzle in an understated way. With their heads-down moods and spacious grooves, they're not as ear-catching as, say, the music coming from young producers around Livity Sound. They're being played by the same sorts of DJs, but probably earlier in the night, and they may slot more neatly among other forms of house and techno. All of which makes it easy to pass over the enormous potential in this young crew. Their third compilation once again draws on artists close to the label and, like Cong Burn 02, it hits the bullseye.
OK, there's one veteran on here: Freerotation's Duckett, who gamely plays to the label's ultra-deep sound. "Lost In Israel" is pretty dark for him, as if he decided to have a crack at wonky after-hours techno. Only the beat is a gentle tick-tock and the dissonant Mills-style arps have a soft-rumpled edge. The track pairs nicely with Chekov's "Spring," a superlative low-key groover that has been floating around for a while. Chekov is probably this scene's breakout star, with music out on Timedance, Peach Discs and Lena Willikens' Selectors comp.
In a just world, Lack won't be far behind him. His untitled track, eight minutes of melancholic broken techno, is a step on from Cong Burn 02's excellent "Absent." It's joined on the B-side by Haddon's "Anabiosis," a viscous ambient track that first appeared on a Cong Burn CDR in 2015. The label describes it as a "go-to opener, closer and after party ender." This is a quality common to all of Cong Burn's vinyl releases. They may not be for peak-time, but they never lose sight of their place in the dance floor cosmos.
TracklistA1 Chekov - Spring
A2 Duckett - Lost In Israel
B1 Lack - Untitled
B2 Haddon - Anabiosis