Bleep

There’s a charming story behind Bedroom Tapes, the latest LP from Paul Woolford’s prolific Special Request project. During a recent house-move Woolford came across a box of cassettes which contained some of his earliest experiments in electronic music. Long thought to be lost forever, these dusty old things represent a crucial stage in Woolford’s musical development. Now, all these years later, they are finally being set free in the world.

Given that these tunes will have been made in the 90’s it’s no surprise that Bedroom Tapes is an album out of time. Techno, IDM, electro and other 20th-century styles are the order of the day here. Tracks like ‘Pineal Gland’ and ‘Xenopsin’ are full of the warm synth pads, skittering 808s and buoyant basslines that one finds in the contemporaneous output of Rephlex Records. ‘Phosphorescence’ is high-quality Herbert-style deep house, and the influence of Aphex Twin looms large over pretty much everything here.

There is also a feeling of closure about these songs being released under the Special Request moniker. After all, this is the project in which Woolford has returned to the rave and club styles of his youth, keeping their spirit while bending their sounds into new forms. It makes sense, then, that we should now be presented with tracks that show where Woolford has been coming from all this time.

Bedroom Tapes is an excellent archival release from Special Request. You can pretty much hear Paul Woolford’s artistic voice developing in real-time when you listen to this LP.