Beginning his career in 2015 with experimental grime albums Communion and Les Fleurs Du Mal, Eric C Burton (aka Rabit) not only found himself flavour of the month but chosen to co-produce the track Losss on Björk’s Grammy-nominated album Utopia. Whilst most artists would attempt to cash in on the collaboration, Burton remained more interested in following his creative instincts, serving up the uncompromisingly ambiguous LP Life After Death one year later.
Having then released a series of mix tapes, Burton embarked on a new challenge to fully investigate the concept of collaboration. His fourth album What Dreams May Come signifies a hugely eclectic and atmospheric shift of gears, whereby contributors including John Beltran, experimentalist JG Thirlwell (Foetus) and producer Maxwell Sterling coalesce with Burton’s eccentric use of circuit bent machinery, modified synths and the algorithmic program, Nodal.
Would you say you always had a studious approach to production?
“I’m kind of old-school in that I studied the greats. Before I was on the internet or released music, if I found something by a producer that I was stuck on I’d load something up on the Akai MPC and literally try to unpack how they made the rhythms or the basslines. Dilla’s Ruff and records by Madlib’s Quasimoto were superinfluential to me. I was never a school person, but I’m very investigative and thirsty for knowledge. A lot of kids are like that, and a lot of us fall by the wayside because we’re not interested in getting a degree.”
