Soulwax – All Systems Are Lying
While there's not much depth to the lyrics on the Dewaele brothers' latest album, when it sounds this good, who cares?
Belgian brothers David and Stephen Dewaele never hit the heights with Soulwax that they have with other ventures. As remixers they’ve breathed fresh life into songs by Gorillaz, Marie Davidson, Fontaines D.C. and Tame Impala. As 2manydjs they created one of the best mash-up compilations, As Heard on Radio Soulwax Pt.2. Now, the brothers are back with their first new Soulwax record since 2018’s Essential.
They describe All Systems Are Lying as “a rock album made without any electric guitars”. Imagine it to sound like what’s inside R2-D2’s head – all beeps and whirrs, whistles and grrrrrs. The album's second track, Run Free, is arguably their best self-created track with its acid house wiggles, angelic harmonies and an ending of disjoined electro madness. It's a frontrunner for electro song of 2025.
The album has more. The empty skull beat of New Earth Time with it’s modem dial-up riff, the 80s electro pain of Cabaret Voltaire-sounding The False Economy and the squelchy bass and xylophone of Idiots in Love, which turns into an indie banger. There’s not much depth to the lyrics. But when it sounds this good, who cares?
Listen to: Run Free, Idiots in Love