[W.T. Records]

William Burnett is an unlikely Williamsburg renaissance man, but with the litany of pies in which he has fingers it’s hard to argue. When he isn’t releasing albums under the nom de plume Grackle, collaborating with Eliot Lipp as Galaxy Toobin’ Gang or recording ghetto house as Smackulator, he’s also known to be DJing sick dance music eclecticism on the Short Bus Radio program. And now Burnett has managed to cram one more achievement onto his resume by starting W.T. Records. For the first release he hasn’t held back, roping in North Carolina based $tinkworx and Kinoeye (a new alias for Datahata) for an auspicious split 12″ debut. But according to Burnett these tracks were the whole inspiration for W.T. Records’ inception. After hearing them posted online he hung onto the MP3s and later noticed they were never released, prompting him to take matters into his own hands.

After releasing a steady output of releases on Downlow and Delsin some years back, $tinkworx’s shark infested artwork and deep techno funk sound has slowed recently, making this appearance all the more enticing. “MKB” opens with brooding piano lines and nods to old school house rhythm foundations, a place that $tinkworx’s previous efforts haven’t ventured all that often. With time a raw modulated bass line emerges grounding the track in what is slightly more familiar ground for him. While the piano is heavy handed at times, the overall feel brings a fresh outlook to house music without caving to its precepts.

The relatively unknown Datahata, similar to $tinkworx, showed his appreciation of Drexciyan electro and techno with his 2007 debut, “Itinerant Craft,” although his contribution here as Kinoeye sounds nothing like it. A pitch shifting synth creates warm angles that complement the shuffling deep house rhythm of “Mean Old World.” As it progresses a spoken sample proclaims, “It’s a mean old world/you gotta fight to stay in it/you gotta stay strong/you gotta scuffle/you gotta do your thing,” a pessimistic statement that comes off as an inspirational message to keep forging ahead. The clipped synth melody and underlying funk licks buried in the mix only add to the mood, giving it a rawer house feel that would leave you to believe it came from somewhere within the Detroit city limits. But what seems most noticeable about this release is that Deep South is pulling at some of its inherent influences and coming up with rewarding results by way of Brooklyn, NY. Send thanks William Burnett’s way.