Soul Music
**Includes bonus disc of remixes from Lee Gamble, Kassem Mosse & Mix Mup, Hieroglyphic Being, Anthony Naples, Anthony Shakir, and more** Whistle crew, hold tight! Paul Woolford implants and augments memories of an 'ardcore future on his ravenous debut album under the Special Request emblem. Following four white labels deconstructing and splicing vintage 'ardcore tropes with both up-to-date and anachronistic house, grime and electro, the Special Request project has grown into a much larger beast, appropriating, much in the same way as the HATE crew, V/Vm, Zomby or Lee Gamble, the febrile spirit of UK warehouses, fields and flyovers in the early '90s. More specifically, Woolford dials into the raw energy of the pirate radio stations like Bradford's PCR which nourished his younger ears with a formative blend of proto-junglist rufige, bleep house and import techno: in other words, his 'Soul Music'. Considering Woolford's status as a big room house DJ, it's something of a radical move, and thankfully delivered with a deep-rooted sincerity. He's not merely whacking breaks over a turgid 4/4; he's cutting 'em up like a badman on a mission, and the effect is deliriously heavy, ranging from epic darkside assaults to swaggering bassbin business and even a deranged avant-garde piano piece that sounds like a lost hook stuck circulating the airwaves since '92. Massive album. One for the hardcore, you know who you are.
As Special Request, UK producer Paul Woolford aimed to honor his teenage years of listening to pirate radio, hearing the sounds of first-generation jungle and rave through his speakers as rave culture was forming. The project's proper debut, Soul Music, is one of the most exciting dance records of this year.
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Album review: Clash is pleased as punch with Special Request's jungle revival on 'Soul Music', Paul Woolford's new LP for Houndstooth...