1 out of 5

Label: DeeWee Studios

Produced by: David Dewaele, Stephen Dewaele

Dewaele bros, come on, now. I appreciate that these dudes are their own hype machines, self-feeding themselves material by releasing and then remixing their own works, cleverly reinventing themselves album by album with perpetual concept releases that can somewhat mask some repetition… And, like, I really like Soulwax. I like this model. It’s smart, and allows them to stay on brand without necessarily having to one-up past efforts.

But come on: a remix of two tracks from an already dance-heavy album?

‘All Systems Are Lying’ purports to be a “rock” album done without typical rock instruments. Not a new concept, and not even really new for Soulwax, so it can really be set aside: they’re pretty good electro bops. That’s all. Some of the album’s tracks are top tier pops; you get a lot of reuse of Soulwax-y’s flat, sing-song affectation that makes for really good bops. But the ‘Nite Versions’ of these songs are just, like, swapping out one synth beat for another. These songs could have appeared on the album and not really been all that out of place. I mean, had you released the two album versions as a 7″ lead-in to the full release, I would’ve later complained that I paid for repeated material, but I wouldn’t necessarily have felt bamboozled, just, like, consumer-ized. Had these versions appeared before the full release, I would have been hyped (moderately: Run Free is great; the title track is okay), but then bamboozled when the album versions proved to just be slight alternates.

Releasing this after the full album is like the worst of all worlds; it feels just like a money grab, and one that I obviously fell for.

I guess I’ve only indirectly addressed: are the remixes good? Not really. The title track clubs up the beat slightly, and you get a different flavor of vocals, but it otherwise adds nothing; even its kind of rave-up moment is flat, and doesn’t build up as much mojo as the original. Similarly, Run Free minuses out much of the catchiness of the original’s vocal line and extends the track to no real avail – we get another rave-up-to-nothing.

I might be less salty if DeeWee releases didn’t come at a premium pricetag, but maybe I should rewind back to acknowledging the business savvy of the Dewaeles…