Special Request - 9/10

The rough rave/house alias of UK producer Paul Woolford, hit the mark with his debut LP 'Soul Music' back in 2013. Now he's upped the ante again with nine new original productions, released as three separate 12"s and a digital collection. And boy, does this one do the damage.

'Modern Warfare' aims for the same grandeur as, say, Goldie did with 'Timeless' 20 years ago – and for the most part, Special Request fulfils his ambition. Vocal tune 'Amnesia', for example, combines elements of classic rave and hardcore/jungle tear-outs, with a bassline that rumbles into earshot like a crazed, dazed elephant, but it's not the only highlight here.

'Reset It', complete with MC snippets and 90s rave piano, transports us back to an era when bandanas were essential club gear, while 'Take Me' could easily have come from the first wave of XL releases. The closing 'Elegy', meanwhile, manages to take the best elements of acid house and Burial-like soul, and combine them with another bassline that could destroy a club at 50 paces.

'Modern Warfare' is an album that reveals hidden depths on repeat listens, and in an era where you listen to a track twice on SoundCloud and just move on, that's very rare indeed. This deserves to be played loud during a massive tear-out on the town.

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