SPECIAL REQUEST 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Under the Special Request alias, Paul Woolford has released some stellar music this year. Astonishingly, "Offworld" is his third album of 2019; it could well be the best, too. It explores different sonic territory too, drawing heavily on electro, futurist Detroit techno, Boards of Canada style IDM and the slick 1980s productions of Jam and Lewis. The result is a stunningly beautiful, spacey and far-sighted set that contains some of Woolford's most emotion-rich work to date - and that's saying something. It also finishes in stunning style with an impeccable remix/re-make of the Grid's "Floatation" that sounds like the best early 90s Orb remix you've never heard.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent condition***


Under the Special Request alias, Paul Woolford has released some stellar music this year. Astonishingly, "Offworld" is his third album of 2019; it could well be the best, too. It explores different sonic territory too, drawing heavily on electro, futurist Detroit techno, Boards of Canada style IDM and the slick 1980s productions of Jam and Lewis. The result is a stunningly beautiful, spacey and far-sighted set that contains some of Woolford's most emotion-rich work to date - and that's saying something. It also finishes in stunning style with an impeccable remix/re-make of the Grid's "Floatation" that sounds like the best early 90s Orb remix you've never heard.

Review: Under the Special Request alias, Paul Woolford has released some stellar music this year. Astonishingly, "Offworld" is his third album of 2019; it could well be the best, too. It explores different sonic territory too, drawing heavily on electro, futurist Detroit techno, Boards of Canada style IDM and the slick 1980s productions of Jam and Lewis. The result is a stunningly beautiful, spacey and far-sighted set that contains some of Woolford's most emotion-rich work to date - and that's saying something. It also finishes in stunning style with an impeccable remix/re-make of the Grid's "Floatation" that sounds like the best early 90s Orb remix you've never heard.

Review: Have a word. One of Special Request's heaviest, most sweat-inducing tune of 2019 getting remixed by Mall Grab and Sully on a pink vinyl? Is this even real? Yes it is. And these remixes absolutely slap. As the titles suggest, Mall Grab takes it down to 135 and in doing so has created even more of a heavier punch to the mix. Man-of-the-moment Sully, meanwhile, flips the original "Vortex 150" into a 164 jam. Once again the breaks are set to throat-slice, the processing makes you feel like you're being zapped by high voltage electricity cables and the whole vibe is 100% long dark tunnel. Immense remix business here.

Review: As you're probably by now aware, the latest Special Request album, "Bedroom Tapes", includes some of the earliest music recorded by Paul Woolford in his Leeds home during the mid-to-late 1990s. The tracks were recovered from cassettes the producer rediscovered during a recent house move. There's much to enjoy throughout, from the deep and melodious electro brilliance of opener "Panaflex Sunrise" and the IDM-influenced ambient techno sweetness of "Thermatropic", to the fizzing, stargazing brilliance of "Entropy" and the high-octane, sub-heavy dreaminess of "Double Rainbow", which like a lot of the album draws influence from the likes of B12, Autechre and Boards of Canada. Arguably best of all, though, is the epic techno workout "Xenospin", a slowly rising chunk of rushing Yorkshire futurism.

Review: Paul Woolford has spent a good chunk of his downtime over the last year or two making Special Request tracks in his pants. So much so, in fact, that he's created enough material to fill four albums, all of which will be released this year. "Vortex" is the first and is, in Woolford's own words, high on "bangers" and low on "conceptual guff". In practice, that means lots of gut-busting low-end frequencies, trippy analogue electronics, razor-sharp rave-style riffs and bustling rhythms that variously touch on electro, early '90s progressive house, breakbeat hardcore, slamming Joey Beltram style techno (see album highlight "Fahrenheit 451") and metallic, delightfully mangled drum and bass ("Fett", whose wonky electronic undulations hark back to early Woolford classic "Erotic Discourse").

Review: Paul Woolford has spent a good chunk of his downtime over the last year or two making Special Request tracks in his pants. So much so, in fact, that he's created enough material to fill four albums, all of which will be released this year. "Vortex" is the first and is, in Woolford's own words, high on "bangers" and low on "conceptual guff". In practice, that means lots of gut-busting low-end frequencies, trippy analogue electronics, razor-sharp rave-style riffs and bustling rhythms that variously touch on electro, early '90s progressive house, breakbeat hardcore, slamming Joey Beltram style techno (see album highlight "Fahrenheit 451") and metallic, delightfully mangled drum and bass ("Fett", whose wonky electronic undulations hark back to early Woolford classic "Erotic Discourse").

Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent condition***


Paul Woolford has spent a good chunk of his downtime over the last year or two making Special Request tracks in his pants. So much so, in fact, that he's created enough material to fill four albums, all of which will be released this year. "Vortex" is the first and is, in Woolford's own words, high on "bangers" and low on "conceptual guff". In practice, that means lots of gut-busting low-end frequencies, trippy analogue electronics, razor-sharp rave-style riffs and bustling rhythms that variously touch on electro, early '90s progressive house, breakbeat hardcore, slamming Joey Beltram style techno (see album highlight "Fahrenheit 451") and metallic, delightfully mangled drum and bass ("Fett", whose wonky electronic undulations hark back to early Woolford classic "Erotic Discourse").

Review: Unsurprisingly, Paul Woolford's Special Request project has become a reference point for London's Houndstooth imprint, the label ran and operated by Fabric, and he's back once more to drop the freshest techno sounds around. What makes this 12" even more special is a two-part appearance from Nina Kraviz, who remixes "Curtain Twitcher" twice, the first being a moody, hubby techno experiment and the second a more light-hearted 'Samba version' that carries the same sort of future-minimalism that says so much with so little. On the flip, "Looking Glass" is a heavy-handed, bad-mannered jungle experiment that lays down an insanely heavy groove of banging breaks sparse bleeps; Anastasia Kristensen's rework of "Tiresias" thrashes out a punitive techno bullet that, once again, is made for a contemporary techno floor.

Review: Paul Woolford's second album under the Special Request alias is a very different beast to its predecessor, 2013's Soul Music. While that was little less than a strobe-fired romp through Woolford's early, rave-era influences, Belief System is an altogether more complex and considered affair. Stretched to 23 tracks over two action-packed discs, the album took three years to produce, contains a number of modular hardware explorations, and features elements of tracks recorded by Woolford as far back as 1993. The sheer breadth and depth of the material is, at times, staggering, as the veteran Leeds producer giddily mixes and matches elements of electro, techno, cinematic soundtracks, hardcore, acid, jungle and experimental electronica. In a word: stunning.

Review: Paul Woolford's second album under the Special Request alias is a very different beast to its predecessor, 2013's Soul Music. While that was little less than a strobe-fired romp through Woolford's early, rave-era influences, Belief System is an altogether more complex and considered affair. Stretched to 23 tracks over two action-packed discs, the album took three years to produce, contains a number of modular hardware explorations, and features elements of tracks recorded by Woolford as far back as 1993. The sheer breadth and depth of the material is, at times, staggering, as the veteran Leeds producer giddily mixes and matches elements of electro, techno, cinematic soundtracks, hardcore, acid, jungle and experimental electronica. In a word: stunning.

Review: Paul Woolford returns with more cross-genre antics with a strong nod to the past, yet with a firm foot in the present on his new stomper for Houndstooth. The explosive title track will take you back to an NYC Storm Rave circa '94, full of Joey Beltram style hoovers and fierce breakbeats. Breakneck acid electro cut "Emutraxx" blows the bloody doors off, in the vein on Air Liquide or Jammin Unit. For a change of pace you can try the wonky slow burner "No Phone Calls" fuelled by a druggy 303 drawl and a lazy 4/4 beat, while Scandinavian noise terror Peder Mannerfelt works his magic as always on his jagged and angular remix of "Real": it's real brooding, you've been warned!

Review: Special Request was launched in earnest in March of last year by Woolford as a creative outlet for "vinyl only releases with no boundaries", and has drawn from a palette of booming basslines and expertly edited classic rave breaks across the four 12" releases thus far. The Hardcore EP sees him stepping up to Fabric's Houndstooth label in advance of a full album later this year, and it's just as rude as the material thus far; "Wall To Wall" sees Woolford adopting a techno framework, with evil vocal samples rattling between heavy, bouncing kicks, and "Broken Dreams" sees more rambunctious jungle, with heavily filtered breaks and clattering snare rolls tethered to a hardcore bassline. The remixes don't mess about either; Anthony Naples turns in a spectral remix of "Mindwash" that keeps the rhythmic ferocity but somehow makes it maudlin and downbeat, while Lee Gamble reworks "Capsules" in a highly experimental, tripped out end of the night style. Big recommendation on this one...