Soul music special request9/20/2023 Woolford’s debut Special Request album, entitled Soul Music, is quite something. “I played with this over the course of the singles. A refining process followed but that was more to do with the overall approach of the project than its specific beats, basslines and fly samples. Woolford drafted the initial blueprints for Special Request from a wealth of unreleased tracks. I had the project in mind for some years before the music came, but once I started to make the music it was like a tidal wave.” “It comes from my teenage years listening to pirate stations. “Special Request has always been building to an album” he opens. Momentum is building, much as Woolford himself expected. The latter two have dropped in 2013, Hardcore appearing on Fabric’s ‘artist-led’ splinter label Houndsooth – the same as the new album. Woolford’s debut EP under the moniker, Ride, generated frenzied buzz and inevitably prompted follow-ups Lolita, Hardcore and Vapour/Mindwash. Special Request actually began life last year as both record label and production project. Special Request is yet another exciting shimmy for his CV, Woolford’s long and distinguished career synonymous with thrill and versatility. What better time, then, for Defected’s Ben Lovett to have a chat with the man himself… Plus, he just happens to have made one of the stand-out, feel-good house records of the year. Venturing far beyond the conventions of club music, Stairfoot Lane Bunker is some of Woolford's most daring, dystopian work.Paul Woolford, a bastion of quality house, techno and electronic music for nearly 20 years now, is about to release a bold and beautiful new album as relatively new alias Special Request. The EP concludes with Minor Science's remix of the title track, which starts out with subtle, glitchy quasi-drum'n'bass similar to the Samurai Horo label before finally exploding into tear-out jungle during the last few minutes. This track, as well as ambient piece "Telepathic Dog," point to more of a science fiction influence than previous Special Request releases. More blown-out, mangled breaks and storm clouds twist through the similarly exhilarating "Replicant," which pauses for a requisite Blade Runner sample before the breaks smash back in. Sharp jungle breaks crash out of nowhere, destroying any hopes for peace and tranquility. The title track starts out with a few minutes of slowly rising airy synths and bass hallucinations, along with softly rolling thunder. "Redrum" opens the EP with tough electro beats, Speak & Spell samples, and razor-sharp edits and manipulations. Several of these tracks were also included in his excellent Fabriclive 91 mix, but here they're given the chance to sprawl out on their own. Following three Modern Warfare EPs, which contained more club-friendly tracks than the rough-cut darkside jungle that made up most of Soul Music, Special Request returned to the Houndstooth label with the far more experimental Stairfoot Lane Bunker EP. house and breakbeat techno scene's crucial tracks during the '90s. pirate radio produced under the name Special Request, he signed to XL, the label responsible for many of the U.K. Following the critical success of Soul Music, Paul Woolford's ode to U.K.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |