Pépé Bradock “Deep Burnt”

The birth of our underground brand, Factory 93, not only brought on an adrenaline rush reminiscent of the renegade warehouse-era of raving—on which Insomniac was founded—but it also had us thinking back to all the people, places and parties that made this whole operation possible. And with that came a burning desire to crack open our collection and dust off the classic records we couldn’t live without. Through our From the Crate series, we’ll be breaking out both seminal and obscure cuts alike, imparting some knowledge in the process.

In the last year of the 20th century, house music was on a high. Seminal tracks were being released on a seemingly weekly basis, providing the soundtrack for underground parties and glossy super-clubs alike around the world.

In house music’s birthplace of Chicago, times were especially good. The underground party and club scene was booming, anchored by the three-floor downtown mega-club Karma. The hot spot was drawing thousands of party people (including this humble scribe) on a regular basis to dance to a cavalcade of top DJs both local and international.

Those DJs would inevitably congregate at legendary Chicago record shop Gramaphone, stalking the walls for the latest and greatest 12-inch releases the moment they arrived.

Among the slew of classics raining down on DJs throughout 1999 was Frenchman Pépé Bradock’s Burning EP on KIF Recordings. Most notable was the epic, 11-minute B-side track “Deep Burnt,” which many consider to be the greatest deep house track of all time.

Built from the opening moments of Freddie Hubbard’s 1979 nugget “Little Sunflower,” “Deep Burnt” twists and turns that 15-second sample into one of house music’s most mysterious and enduring classics. Adding crisp tambourines, Rhodes piano stabs and a sparse 4×4 beat, the track still packs dancefloors worldwide and commands top dollar on the resale market. It was arguably the premier after-hours house anthem of 1999.

Brooklyn-born Chicago stalwart DJ Heather was among those DJs regularly found snapping up new releases at Gramophone Records, where she once worked.

“Not sure where I first heard it—most likely in a record shop. I was immediately struck by how ‘Chicago’ it sounded,” Heather recalls. “It could easily find a home alongside the Prescription and Guidance releases of the time. The influence was notable.”

“Simultaneously, the track managed to sound stark and quite lush, effortlessly straddling the fine line between deep house and techno,” she continues, remarking on the record’s ability to fit perfectly in a wide variety of DJ sets. “Instant classic.”

The reclusive Bradock’s own explanation of the track echoes the music’s dark and mysterious mood.

“‘Deep Burnt’ is a banal bit of techno with violins and a tambourine, cubism for ravers—a potentially impolite re-appropriation, but a sincere one. Juvenile and sonorous sleight of hand,” the producer cryptically revealed during a rare 2015 interview specifically about the track.

“I dreamt it up while working as a smuggler of hip-hop etymology: dealing in sonic relics, vinyl miner, at a time not so long ago when a rare disc was a grail, the prize claimed by those willing to travel for it, to plunge their fingers into the dust and to spend their last dimes on a whisper of soul to share.”

It’s an appropriate synopsis, considering the track’s status as an underground house classic that harkens back to the heyday of crate-digging and meticulous sampling techniques.

Just last year, “Deep Burnt” received a long-awaited vinyl reissue—a recreation of the original, right down to the macabre cover art. Much like its predecessor, it too sold out in immediate fashion.

“I want to take the opportunity to salute, with humility, those who hacked dehumanized robotic music, CDs destined for landfills, with semi-instruments so as to transcend the force of despair with poetry, in the Bronx and elsewhere,” says Bradock of those he considers his inspiration for the tune. “The children of the sun showing the way to the light, transforming the silent, polluting vinyl into solid gold.”