The singer has become a deejay

Soulwax played their last show at Brixton Academy at Soulwaxmas 2012. Thirteen years later, the band returned to the iconic venue so I had to be there.
Here’s a quick report.

The band played three shows of their mini ‘All Systems Are Lying Tour’, the new live show which debuted in Brussels about a month ago, last week: at Victoria Warehouse in Manchester, Brixton Academy in London and Salle Pleyel in Paris. Next week they play one final show at 013 Tilburg in The Netherlands.

Before the gig, the band did a signing at Dover Street Market, where fans lined up to get their Soulwax albums signed or by any of the Unified Goods legacy formats or merch.

Pictures by Tyler Kelly for Dover Street Market

picture by Stephen Tilney

Less then an hour later, doors opened at Brixton Academy. I remember vividly the long queues outside during the Soulwaxmas days, but this time I got in really quickly.

Sworn Virgins had already started their support show. Last time I saw them live, supporting Soulwax at the Roundhouse in 2024, it was only Quinn Whalley and Clams Baker. But at Brixton they were joined by Kuntessa, Chris OC and another character on vocals who’s unfamiliar to me.

pictures by Babycakes Romero

At 9.15 pm Soulwax took the stage, ready to show the Londoners how it’s done. Those aren’t my words, but that’s what The Times wrote in their 5 star review. (non pw version)

From the review:

That’s how you do it. For decades people have been looking for ways to combine electronica and live music and now Soulwax, the impish brothers from Belgium, have hit upon a solution that combines showmanship, virtuosity, mighty grooves and some incredible toys.

Their Brixton Academy extravaganza featured four massive retro-futuristic consoles covered in oversized dials and neon lights, with David and Stephen Dewaele operating the two central ones. Behind them were three live drummers, one of whom was Iggor Cavalera, the co-founder of Sepultura, the Brazilian metal behemoths. They clearly weren’t messing about.

The most recent Soulwax album, All Systems Are Lying, was their most coherent yet diverse piece of work yet, achieving their aim of making a rock record with synthesizers.

Tracks from that album dominated the show, from the chiming chords of Polaris to the gorgeously melodic Run Free. The latter song sounded like a turbo-charged Tears for Fears thanks to Stephen Dewaele’s impassive but moving voice, which often felt like it had been beamed from the Eighties.
On Conversation Intercom Stephen’s singing had shades of Green Gartside from Scritti Politti; on Gone it was cloaked in vocoder, imagining an elegiac Daft Punk.

The brothers and two bandmates shimmied behind their custom-built consoles throughout, like scientists from Stranger Things at an office party. Midway through, a pre-recorded voiceover featuring a Tomorrow’s World-style gentleman explained how each machine allowed its operator to control an array of unseen keyboards and manipulate the music with oscillating effects. We were still none the wiser, to be honest, but it sounded magnificent.

Cavalera and his two fellow drummers underpinned the electronica with muscle and skill, sometimes in unison, sometimes ploughing different furrows. The audience roared and bounced for Soulwax’s dancefloor-shredding remix of Marie Davidson’s Work It and NY Excuse, on which Stephen and Laima Leyton traded punky raps as sirens screamed and the drum trio raced to the finish line. What a show — simple in its danceability but eye-watering in its ambition.
★★★★★

All pictures by our good friend Babycakes Romero.


Soulwax setlist at O2 Brixton Academy, London, January 15:

1. Hot Like Sahara
2. Krack
3. Coronet (sample ‘Faith, Hope And Charity‘ by Fun Boy Three)
4. Do You Want To Get Into Trouble? / Essential
5. EMS
6. Takutakutaku
7. Is It Always Binary
8. Rapraprap
9. Polaris
10. Heaven Scent / The Manual
11. I<3 Techno
12. Run Free
13. What You Got
14. Idiots in Love
15. Pills and People Gone
16. New Earth Time
17. Meanwhile on the Continent
18. Work It (Soulwax remix)
19. Too Late Now (Soulwax remix)
20. Another Excuse
21. All Systems Are Lying
22. Gimme a Reason
23. Miserable Girl
24. E-Talking
25. Moskow Diskow (Telex)
26. Toktoktok
27. NY Excuse
28. False Economy
29. Conversation Intercom