Special Request "Belief System"

https://special-request.bandcamp.com/album/belief-system

23 tracks that meander between scuffed techno fodder, abstract jungle artillery, and behemoth ambient tones

First proper album-like release since Modern Warfare, but much more balanced. Some tracks are direct callbacks to that sound, like Sanctuary, Make It Real, and Brainstorm, but he gets a bit more experimental with Leviathan and Replicant. All flavors of techno here too, with the brooding Catacombs, the over-stimulated Curtain Twitcher, the naive Tiresias, and the aptly-named Scrambled in LS1. The part that personally surprised me was how actually good the ambient stuff is, right from the warm and triumphant opening Chrysalis (which i keep thinking sounds like a reprise of New Seeds) to the warning calls of Transmission. Reckoning sounds straight out of a contemporary action film. In Loving Memory ends the album on a surprisingly human note, despite the overall cold outer shell of the two-hour record

You could call the whole thing badly navigated and overly broad in its genres, but i think it's a really impressive piece from Paul Woolford, showcasing masterful ability even sometimes at the expense of coherence

Highly recommended

i found him through Stairfoot Lane Bunker which i really enjoyed but i haven't been that into anything else of his. i'll give this a go tomorrow.

Yea it's unreal

Finally a thread about it. It's fantastic!

Got my record in the mail today and the tracklisting is abridged.. actually seems more coherent this way, focusing on the drummier half of the album 

Yeah, I'm really liking this.

Didn't realize he had a new album until this track came up on my spotify (pleasant surprise)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0SiMhUgYAM

Led me to the Curtain Twitcher EP, and then to this.

Some really tasty moments among a sprawling expanse. I feel like I "get" tracks 1-14 pretty well so far and come back to a lot of them. 

Really liking the update to his jungle styles with acid/idm influences, with nods to early AE ("Tiresias" especially) and AFX.

But 14 (Light In the Darkest Hour) feels like the proper end of the album, after which it kinda just lingers, not sure I'll ever get that last third of it.

Got the vinyl a few weeks ago too. Cracking album.

fuck man this album slays.

"brainstorm" is such a banger

Must've gone under WATMM's radar.

  On 3/23/2022 at 10:20 AM, psn said:

Must've gone under WATMM's radar.

this record kicks ass

I got the 4LP for like £8 on Discogs. Criminal.

  On 4/1/2022 at 7:19 PM, Richie Sombrero said:

I got the 4LP for like £8 on Discogs. Criminal.

Copy for a tenner still.

https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/10987502?ev=rb&ships_from=United+Kingdom

He's playing some horrible looking new festival near me but Woolford deserves to get paid so good for him.

bump - cause curtain twitcher is a monster and some of his finest work

Bangin shit

Soul music even more so

Somehow missed this til now will need to listen

here to say that the new PORTAL series is meh

  On 4/1/2022 at 10:54 PM, Richie Sombrero said:

Copy for a tenner still.

https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/10987502?ev=rb&ships_from=United+Kingdom

 

He's playing some horrible looking new festival near me but Woolford deserves to get paid so good for him.

 

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He was at Movement in Detroit in '23 and '24 and it's kind of a shame because I think his chops are wasted on the hoi polloi. I know this is how he can make his bones though so I'm at least grateful for it. In '24, it was a Metalheadz 30th anniversary theme and he did a blinding set of dn'b that was so good. If there are any heads out there, this is a White Whale ID for me. I can't tell how many tracks may be involved but the helium rave vocal + fast, twinkly arps is what I'm after. Naturally, he was unShazam'able for the whole set!

I remember he did a tour a couple of years back of Irish towns like Waterford that traditionally wouldn't get anyone playing but also are not really near other big cities. A sound feen.

He plays Derry loads actually too.

Album coherency is overrated. This is a badass set of tracks.