Soulwax - FROM DEEWEE

Soulwax
FROM DEEWEE
2017
Spotify

It seems like Soulwax, now over 20 years on in their career have gone through more changes than many other bands. At times their music was alternative guitar rock, then britpop, then regular pop and so on which lands us in their current iteration of electronic band. However with all these changes you would expect plenty of eye rolling, but this record is an experiment that actually works and works well. FROM DEEWEE was recorded in one take, so just 48 minutes, with four different drummers providing the the sounds. The album is broken up into tracks, but they all blend perfectly together to create this one massive experience. The record feels as close as you can possibly get to a live performance and that vibe oozes from every corner. The vocals are often downplayed allowing the electronic sounds to shine but still giving the songs some kind of recognizable structure. This album really harkens back to the early days of electronic music, where elements of funk were still heavily circulated within the new genre, yet it doesn't feel dated. One of the great elements on this album is they are able to capture that feeling of anxiety that you get from some electronic music, like the pulsing beat is never going to stop.

The percussion masterclass is given on "Is It Always Binary" as the group bangs away creating this really expressive track. Because the record is so unified it can feel a bit long at times, but you more have to look at it as a set rather than a group of tracks. You can only imagine the work that needed to be done to get this one take into the kind of shape it is in on the finished product showing that the band can really produce the hell out of a record. The production almost gives the album a more unified feel which doesn't always serve them that well. Because Soulwax are always a band in flux, you would expect there to be more of that here, but once you get to the later tracks the album starts to sound very much the same. You do however have to keep coming back to the achievement this record is, to combine all these elements and all this sound in one take and make it really work is simply mesmerizing. You want to celebrate the achievement, but it doesn't mean that in doing something exciting that they have created the best Electronic album of all time. However, FROM DEEWEE is a solid outing from a band who are willing to try something new.

7.8 out of 10