Special Request - Offworld (2019)

Special Request answers the question “what if Jam & Lewis signed to Metroplex?” with the 3rd and final instalment of his 2019 album cycle.

Arriving in the glistening wake of his ‘Vortex’ and ‘Bedroom Tapes’ sides, ‘Offworld’ completes the trilogy with a unchronic suggestion of ‘80s soul meets Detroit electro, with results that lean into melodic AI electronica and glyding late ‘90s “breakbeat” trance.

Fair to say that Paul Woolford aka Special Request nails the vibe with dead on with the combo of Midway’s ‘Set It Out’ vocal applied to rocking 808 in ’237,000 Miles’, while he takes it deeper with the smooth R&B/electro-soul shimmy of ’Shepperton Moon Landing’, along with lazer-zap electro and Plaid-like melody in ‘Offworld Memory 3’, the lush nose-drip dissonance of ‘Front Screen Projection’ and ‘Are End Of The Moon.’ The bashy breaks and acid of ‘Morning Ritual’ are a mishit but ‘Floatation (SR Offworld Mix’) pulls it back with a fine marriage of Twin Peaks-meets-Italo House keys, NASA comms, and Wild Bunch-era breakbeats.