PAUL WOOLFORD 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Given the runaway success of his heavyweight, retro-futurist Special Request project, Paul Woolford house releases are becoming increasingly rare. House Hits Volume 1, his first outing on Hot Creations, marks his first foray into the world of peak-time house for almost 12 months. There's a rubbery, retro-futurist feel to A-side "Story of My Life", where reverb-heavy vocal samples and shimmering synth lines ride a chunky 1980s Chicago house bassline and suitably sweaty, jacking machine drums. Woolford once again indulges his love of heavy, rumbling basslines on "Don't Waste My Time", a bustling peak-time roller that's far more stripped-back and spacey than its predecessor.

Review: As the recent label compilation proved, Will Saul's Aus Music are dealing in strictly heavy hitters these days and they don't come much bigger than Paul Woolford do they? Heaven & Earth looks to be Woolford's latest concept-laden 12", arriving a few months after the Spesh Request man laid down the Mother & Child single for Hotflush. Split into two parts, "Heaven & Earth" finds Woolford channelling a rich brand of tech-laden house music and one that is adorned with swooping orchestral flourishes amidst the thick swathes of bass. The more pared-back part II just nudges it for us.

Review: Paul Woolford takes a break from detonating the world's dancefloors with his retro leaning Special Request project with the onset of a conceptual series for Hotflush. "Mother & Child" is an emotive and uplifting house anthem, plain and simple. It follows in the tradition of hits such as Octave One's "Blackwater" with its majestic and ethereal string section and powerful groove. On the flip "Mother & Child Divided" is the beatless version which concentrates on the breathtaking work of the string orchestra recordings that make up the large part of the track's magic

Review: Like many producers who grew up in Yorkshire during the early '90s, Paul Woolford has fond memories of Sheffield-based pirate radio station Fantasy FM. As the cover - based on the station's distinctive logo - makes clear, Forever More is little less than a love letter to the rave-era pirate. While the title track sparkles with vintage Italo-house attitude - think bold piano riffs, bouncy grooves and extended solos - it's the accompanying "No Requests (Special Request Fantasy FM Mix)" that really hits home hard. Under the hardcore and jungle influenced Special Request moniker, Woolford delivers a retro-futurist smasher that effortless joins the dots between Yorkshire bleep, early hardcore, and the Belgian rave records that followed. Brilliantly, it also finishes with a two-minute advert for a party in Bridlington, lifted from an old Fantasy FM recording.

Review: The legendary Paul Woolford, who also goes by the name Special Request and who has appeared on everything from Sven Vath's Cocoon to Carl Craig's Planet E, returns to Scuba's Hotflush with a bouncy two-tracker that's bound to cause a stir on the dancefloor. "Orbit" takes over the entirety of the A-side with a powerful swell of bass hypnotics, driving percussion shots and a heavy dosage of head-banging. Over on the B-side, "MDMA" is inevitably madder, its bassline being more deranged and broken down...sliding nicely in between equally wonky piano keys and strange atmospherics. Large.

Review: In a thoroughly intriguing span of time and connections within recent electronic music, Kowton makes his first appearance on Hotflush with his remixes of early 00's edgy tech house banger "Erotic Discourse", which arguably put Paul Woolford on the map. Kowton undoubtedly makes the track his own; working those distinctive delay-riddled pings into a guttural broken beat roller with all the rave malaise you would want from one of the Livity Sound lynchpins. The beatless version on the flipside is equally enthralling, promising much mixing delight to be had from the heavily reverbed treatment as well as making for a great slice of uneasy electronica in its own right.

Review: If you've been to a night club over the course of the past six years, it's fairly certain that you will have heard "Erotic Discourse" at least once! Released by Paul Woolford under the Bobby Peru alias on 20:20 Vision in 2006, the track is rightly regarded as one of the highlights of the producer's storied career and with an effect akin to a golf ball dropping down a corrugated iron pipe, there's not really been a techno track since that's quite so weird! It's perhaps because of this that the track's never been officially remixed despite it's ubiquity, until now that is as Hotflush pair Dense & Pika have been commissioned to rework the track for a one sided 12" on the label run by house music's comedy villain Paul Rose. The aforementioned sonic weirdness wisely remains intact on this remix from Dense & Pika which brings their weighty rhythmic leaning to the fore.

Review: Senor Woolford has joined Loco Dice, Bug and Troxler in the small but well respected band of producers to contribute to NRK's compilation series The Lab, which is thankfully rolling on despite Nik Harris' recent decision to close down operations at NRK HQ after 15 years in the game. This four track vinyl sampler gives you a well judged taste of the double CD which presents Woolford at his most wilfully eclectic. The A Side has two titans of US House in Chez Damier and Terrence Dixon, while the flip sees Skudge turn in a typically gripping remix of Iron Curtis and Edit Piaf's Achterbahn D'Amour next to "Berlin Sunrise (Die Dammerung)", Daniel Wang's stunning electronic disco turn for the Ghostly label.

Review: The second 12" sampler of Paul Woolford's excellent In The Lab double mix CD arrives sporting some excellent cuts from Hunee, Lazer Sword, Billy Shane and NB Funky. Originally released as part of Permanent Vacation's If This Is House Zwei compilation last year, Hunee's "A Study In Wild" sounds as engaging and instantly energising nearly a year on and makes us excited all over again for his mooted debut album later this year. The appearance alongside it of Lando Kal's 2010 refix of his own Lazer Sword production "Batman" should demonstrate for those who haven't clicked how expansive Woolford's mix is. Naturally this continues on the flip where Brooklyn resident Billy Shane's masterful Dehnert ode "Fach" gets a welcoming revisit along with NB Funky's excellent UK F House hybrid "Riddim Box".