Bleep

Belief System finds Special Request shedding the past's junglist roots that characterized his debut album Soul Music and his XL trilogy Modern Warfare with a killer new selection of synths, samplers and samples. In the same vein as his Fabriclive mix CD, Belief System switches lanes between acid, electro, jungle, 2-step and techno in a typically Woolford style jaw-dropping fashion.

Packing in a whopping twenty-three track across digital, double-drop CD and four expertly cut plates (DJ friendly FYI) Belief System is in many ways the culmination of Woolford's teen to adult years spent dieting on nothing but the finest 12" slabs of club fodder and pirate radio sessions.

While it has been recorded over a three year period and built up from Woolford's tape archive that stretched back to the early 90's, from the opening seconds of Chrysalis with its reflective pads and crumbling drum breaks setting a metallic melancholic tone, it's clear that this isn't just some pastiche of '96 'ardkore canin' dreamt up on a load of sample packs and "authentic junglist" VST patches. This is undoubtedly a fully-formed and armoured to the teeth move to push the sounds that inspired the project up and over any creative limits that have held previous junglist hardcore producers back.

While there are a lot of tracks (and we don't say that lightly) the level of production is second to none. The core of the album is created around “unhinged modular work, contact microphone recordings of icebergs cracking, microtonal elements, and the introduction of stark soundtrack pieces” MCombined with all manner of jagged syncopations breaks razor sharp synths and snarling basslines, this makes for a dominating experience.

It's not all teeth grinding bangers though, wall to wall in the last quarter of the album is given into coastal ambience that swings by with echoes of the previous tracks sampled sounds of icebergs being crushed.

Belief System not so much brings the heat to the table as smashes it to pieces, along with the chairs before going on a rampage through the entire flat. All to a pirate radio broadcasted soundtrack that twists up the finest influences of AFX acid, Drexciyan electro, Burial 2-step, DMZ dubstep and all manner of No-U Turn, Metalheadz, Suburban Base and Moving Shadow treats primed to cook up ya brain.