Historically, English producer Paul Woolford has a handful of monikers through which he’s released tunes, but his recent endeavors as Special Request seem to be garnering a degree of attention that even his reputation-earning “Erotic Discourse” single couldn’t unilaterally muster back in 2007. The Fabric-affiliated Houndstooth label signed Special Request in 2013, and toward the latter part of that year, his acclaimed Soul Music LP signified a stunning contemporary take on what Woolford himself considers the “illicitness” of old school pirate radio. (Anal-retentive classifiers are understandably inclined to place that album squarely in the “jungle” category, and while there’s certainly a prominent sense of that on select tracks, the album as a whole morphs like an apparition, giving a bright, lucid “fuck you!” to such rigid genre distinctions.)
To be fair, though; Woolford’s seamless transition between sub-genres is certainly part of his appeal, and one can only assume a continuation of that on his two imminent releases as Special Request: a new EP entitled Stairfoot Lane Bunker — out via Houndstooth on April 7 — and the next iteration in the Fabric-sponsored mix series, Fabriclive 91, out March 24. Special Request did the mixing for both releases himself (duh), and you can hear two of the EP’s six tracks down below before pre-ordering both the EP and the Fabriclive mix at your earliest convenience. Then, once you’ve got ‘em, you can quibble with your internet-friends about micro-genres ‘til your heart’s content.
Stairfoot Lane Bunker tracklisting:
01. Redrum
02 Stairfoot Lane Bunker
03 Telepathic Dog
04. Replicant
05. Five Lane Ends
06. Stairfoot Lane Bunker (Minor Science Remix)
More about: Special Request
