This third full-length studio album from Paul Woolford under his Special Request alias is the follow-up to 2017's Belief System and the first of four new albums to be released under a new deal with Houndstooth. Consisting entirely of "bowel-evacuating bangers," this hard and heavy club record twists Woolford's typical breakbeat hardcore sounds into some of the harshest, most amusical forms possible, as on the single "SP4NN3R3D" ("spannered" is a British slang term for being extremely inebriated). ~ John D. Buchanan|

Rovi

The first of several Special Request albums planned for 2019, Vortex has no ambitions other than being a batch of "bowel-evacuating bangers." This is a sharp turn from 2017's Belief System, which had much more of a build-up and pay-off with its dance tracks, then diverted into cinematic compositions during its second part. Here, there's only a brief, fizzy intro before he launches into the flanged breakbeats of "SP4NN3R3D." "Ardkore Dolphin" sounds exactly like its title, merging heavy, crackly breakbeats with atmospheric jungle synths, but this seems to be one of the most explicitly nostalgic tracks here. "Fahrenheit 451" recycles the "got to keep the fire burning" sample used in many a rave anthem, but otherwise it's surrounded by a sort of octagonal bass line and heavy 4/4 kick drums. "Levitation," also perfectly named, slaps rolling breakbeats onto twitching, sky-gazing synths, and sounds fitting for an alien hardcore rave. Things get a bit more hyper with "Fett," another flanged-breaks rinse-out, leading up to "A Gargantuan Melting Face Floating Effortlessly Through the Stratosphere," which sort of feels like a somewhat hollowed-out happy hardcore track. There's hard, thumping kicks and ecstatic synth arpeggios, but Paul Woolford doesn't add any other elements -- he just cranks the tempo up until everyone goes loony, then slows it back down again. Clearly Woolford knocked out these tracks for fun, and while there isn't quite as much to them as his previous albums, Vortex is still quite fun, and that's all that matters. ~ Paul Simpson

Rovi