Offworld album cover
Offworld

Special Request , The Grid

2019
Houndstooth

Paul Woolford’s journey in middle age from journeyman tech house producer / DJ to globe-bestriding superstar able to produce top ten pop dance hits and drop Sun Ra and µ-Ziq in sets at the same time is one of the most dazzling stories in 21st century music. And his work especially as Special Request is dazzling too. It revisits the most classic tropes of 90s rave music — in this case gospelly Chicago house vocals, Detroit electro funk, and Artificial Intelligence style ecstatic electronica — but never with a wistful or hauntological nostalgia. Rather he is retooling these sounds with the best studio technology available for a new generation. This album is the most boggling capturing of uncynical euphoria, culminating in a truly preposterous 13 minute remake of The Grid's “Floatation” that will make your eyes roll back into your head in total bliss.

Joe Muggs

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