Into Music Review: Tam Dean Burn & George T – My Favourite Place

Artists: Tam Dean Burn & George T
EP: My Favourite Place
Label: Self released via Bandcamp

There’s a lot to be said for creatives and culture right now in Scotland and that’s certainly true through Edinburgh way and a little further down the Walk into Leith. Expressive writing and original, inventive music is alive and well in what is a bright and fertile period for the arts.

None more so than Tam Dean Burn and George T who have just released their debut EP, My Favourite Place. Bringing together the mercurial Dean Burn, known for theatre and film/TV roles as well as being part of the Rabbie Burns inspired band The Bum-Clocks, and the multi-talented producer, remixer and musician George T, the duo have made what is an inspired bevy of songs, each standing tall in their own right but also providing a collective spark which allows for a natural flow across the set.

Title track My Favourite Place starts with rain falling incessantly in the background, the song also recorded on such a day. Dean Burn’s distinctive vernacular offsetting the pulses and unworldly undercurrents that permeate throughout, alienesque synths weave and wash over the track.

Lucky Strike is seventy-five seconds of insistent beats coupled with observational lyrics. Short yes, agreeable, fuck yes!

The mid-point is Weekend, perhaps my own personal favourite. The vocal is dark, brooding and at times menacing. If Leonard Cohen came from Leith, this is how he would sound, the lasting refrain “whatever happened to the weekend” becoming more and more anxiety-ridden, pleading with no obvious answers.

Newhaven Sunset suggests lunar flashes against a barren landscape of another world, another planet, emanating a real cinematic, majestic vibe. Closing track Leaving Here has a dub feel early on, the track gradually building with the vocal in the background, speeded up/slowed down loops taking the track in a multitude of directions before Dean Burn comes in with a virtuosic lounge vocal at the end.

The idea for the EP was hatched in 2020 with weather being a loose theme for the tracks. There’s much to like here and more to be discovered on subsequent plays. The collection could work equally well live or perhaps on screen, let’s see where it takes the duo, I’ll be watching with interest, you should too.

Tam Dean Burn & George T’s EP is out now and is available via there Bandcamp page here.

Into Creative are Premiering this sumptious film for My Favourite Place at 7pm – 07.10.21…