Monday evening, Soulwax gave the first of his four sold-out concerts at the Ancienne Belgique. Without a new album, but with a brutalist electro-kraut mix, still unstoppable.
You may have seen this meme recently: and Back to the future was released today, Marty would go back to… 1995. Enough to give a famous look of age to those we associate with generation Y. Or to fans of Soulwax. At least those from the first hour. We often thought of them during the first of four concerts (sold out) that the group gave at Ancienne Belgique on Monday evening. What remains of the band, formed in Ghent in… 1995 (incidentally, the year of birth ofAngela, present in the room)? The one whose first post-grunge album, published a year later, was even produced by Chris Goss (Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss)? Not much. Well yes: Stefaan Van Leuven, indestructible bassist, and obviously Stephen and David Dewaele.
For the rest, everything else, Soulwax no longer has much to do with Soulwax. For a while now. Moving into drum dance, via 2manydjs, he became this diehard electro-techno-kraut-rock hydra. One of the “toys” of the Dewaele brothers, never stingy with narrow projects – a 24-hour mix? OK ; an instrumental analog synth disc with the legendary EMS Synthi 100? OK ; a soundtrack – that of Belgica – made up of a dozen fake groups? OK.
Hot machine
Monday evening, Soulwax put on his most recent costume again. The one he has worn, basically, since his last real official album, From Deewee (2017). At AB, David, Stephen & Stefaan found their… three drummers – Blake Davies on the right, Aurora Bennett in the middle, and Igor – Sepultura – Cavalera -, as well as Laima Leyton, the latter’s companion, on keyboards. Visually, it’s unstoppable. Perched on scaffolding, lined up abreast, the trio of punchers dominates everything. Illuminated by almost clinical white lights, they are the engine, the turbine. As soon as it lights up, there’s no point in resisting, it takes everything away.
Below, the Dewaele brothers, Van Leuven and Leyton provide the fuel. Like crazy people in the lab, they fiddle with their synths, which seem to come straight out of 2001 Space Odyssey. Here and there, Stephen’s voice tries to find its way, almost ghostly for example on Missing Wires. Not drowned, but immersed in magma. It also leads to a first peak, the sequence Is It Always Binary/Krak.
In 2024, Soulwax arrives without a new album, but not without new titles. As Polaris, whose keyboard layers pretend to calm the machine a little. A little further, we also guess New Earth Time – inspired by the proposal of New Zealand scientist Mark Laugesen to divide the day, no longer into hours and minutes, but into 360 degrees. « 360 degrees of time », repeats Stephen Dewaele, like a mantra. Obviously, Soulwax has still not fully addressed the issue. Even on familiar ground, they remain this mutant group, testing the boundaries of the pop format.
Kneaded
The concert thus takes the form of a large percussive and synthetic mix. A long techno-kraut trip, which brings together the group’s catchiest motifs to better mix them – Miserable Girl which shifts towards E-Talkingto drift towards Excuse me. Soulwax kneads, manages its effects, both raw – even brutal – and sinuous. Clever, the Dewaele brothers even preserve the element of surprise in what could, otherwise, pass for a formal techno beating. Like Goodnight Transmissionthe last of the two encores, which pretends to linger like a relaxed father, before the trio of drummers-lumberjacks accelerate and take charge of sending everyone to the ropes.
To be honest, we come away a little stunned. Not necessarily ready to absorb the shock. In a recent interview at the Morgen, Stephen also admitted to finding himself in “a melancholic moment at Sakamoto”, only managing to write calmer pieces on the piano. Before being overtaken by the syncopation of batteries and machines. Monday night, she was still as unstoppable.